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SIR ROBERT PEEL. 



FAMOUS 

ENGLISH STATESMEN 



OF 



QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN 



SARAH KNOWLES BOLTON 

AUTHOR OF " POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS," " GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS,' 

"famous AMERICAN AUTHORS," "FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN," 

" FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE," " FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS," 

"social STUDIES IN ENGLAND," " STORIES FROM LIFE," 

,** FROM HEART AND NATURE "(POEMS) " FAMOUS 

ENGLISH AUTHORS," ETC., ETC. 



" I do not trouble myself whether my conduct in Parliament is popular or 
not. I care only that it shall be wise and just as regards the permanent interests 
of my country." — John Bright. 




int!^. 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

46 East Fourteenth Street 



V \^- 




il 






Copyright, 1S91, 
By Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 



/^-3^r^^ 



THE LIBRARY 

OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



C. J. PETERS & SON, 

Typographers and Electrotypers, 

145 High Street^ Boston. 






TO THE MEMORY OF MY PARENTS, 



AND 



iSli^abeti^ JHarg JHiller. 



PREFACE. 



nnHE history of these men is largely the history of 
Great Britain during the last half of the nineteenth 
century. With Peel begins the relief of Ireland through 
Catholic Emancipation ; with Gladstone, better land 
laws, and perchance self-government for Ireland. With 
Palmerston is told the story of the Crimean War ; with 
John Bright, the struggle for free trade, and his noble 
defence of America in our Civil War ; with Forster, the 
great gift to England of elementary education ; with 
Shaftesbury, the elevation of labor through legislative 
enactments and the most generous sympathy ; with 

V 

Beaconsfield and with Fawcett, victory over obstacles 
almost insurmountable, the race question, and blindness. 
If, as Froude says, "those whom the world agrees to 
call great are those who have donet>r produced some- 
thing of permanent value to humanity," then the states- 
men sketched in this volume may well be called great. 
They loved and served their country, and have helped 
her to reach an exalted position among the nations. 

S. K. B. 
5 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Srii Robert Peet. . 9 

Lord Palmerston 62 

Lord Shaftesbury 123 

John Brigft 192 

i/WiLLiAM Edward Forster 259 

Lord Beaconsfield . . . . '. . . . 313 

v/Henry Fawcett 378 

William Ewart Gladstone ...... 414 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 



SIR EGBERT PEEL, Prime Minister of England, 
was born near Bury, in Lancashire, February 5, 
1788. 

His grandfather, Robert, at first supported his family 
by farming, eked out by hand-loom weaving. He had 
married Elizabeth Haworth, whose social position was 
somewhat superior to his own, as her father was styled 
" gentleman.'' Her brother was engaged in calico print- 
ing, and asked Mr. Peel to join him in business. 

Heretofore the use of calicoes had been restricted by 
imposing a penalty of five pounds upon the weaver, and 
twenty pounds upon the seller, of a piece of calico, be- 
cause such use would interfere with the makers of linen 
and woollen stuffs ! In 1736 calicoes were allowed to 
be worn if the warp was entirely of linen. In 1744 a 
statute was passed allowing printed goods wholly made 
of cotton to be used. 

The need of the new firm of Haworth & Peel was 
money. Mr. Peel had mortgaged his small property, and 
combined the amount obtained with that of Mr. Haworth, 
but the capital was insufficient. Finally a Mr. Yates, 
the keeper of a small inn, agreed to furnish money for 
the enterprise. 

The firm — now Haworth, Peel, & Yates — made and 
printed its own cloth, and opened a warehouse for its 

9 



10 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

sale in Manchester. Mr. Peel, especially, was inventive, 
but kept his improvements carefully secreted from other 
firms. Sir Lawrence Peel, the cousin of the Prime Min- 
ister, tells this story of the elder Peel : — 

"He was in his kitchen making some experiments in 
printing on handkerchiefs, and other small pieces, when 
his only daughter, then a girl, afterwards Mrs. Willock, 
the mother of the postmaster of Manchester, brought 
him in from their garden of herbs a sprig of parsley. 
. . . She pointed out and praised the beauty — exquisite 
beauty — of the leaf, and looking by habit of imitation, 
naturally, to the useful side, she said that she thought it 
would make a very pretty pattern. 

" He took it out of her hand, looked at it attentively, 
praised it for its beauty, and her for her taste, and said 
that he would make a trial of it. She, pleased not to be 
pooh-poohed as discoverers amongst juniors often are, 
lent her aid with all the alacrity of fourteen. 

" A pewter dinner-plate, for such was then the com- 
mon dinner-plate in families of that degree, was taken 
down from the shelf, and on it was sketched, say rather 
scratched, a figure of the leaf, and from this impressions 
were taken. It was called in the family Nancy's pat- 
tern, after his daughter. It became a favorite ; in the 
trade it was known as the parsley-leaf pattern ; and apt 
alliteration, lending its artful aid, gave its inventor the 
nickname of Parsley Peel." 

He was industrious, frugal, reserved, and plain in 
manner. When he walked the streets, with his head 
down, engaged in thought, his neighbors called him " the 
philosopher." 

He did not stand upon ceremony. "It chanced one 
day," says Sir Lawrence Peel, "that the Earl of Ux- 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 11 

bridge, from whom he rented his mills, called upon him 
on some business, on the conclusion of which his lord- 
ship was invited by Mr. Peel to his house, an invitation 
which was cordially accepted. They walked together to 
the house, which was at no great distance. 

"As they approached it, Mr. Peel saw that the front door 
was closed ; and being always impatient of form, and also 
a valuer of time, he led his honored guest into the house 
by the back way on a washing-day, and whilst piloting 
him through a north-west passage, not without its ob- 
structions of tubs, pails, and other household utensils, 
was observed by the reproachful eyes of his wife, who 
failed not, with a due observance, however, of time and 
place, to make continual claim in the name of decorum 
against an entry scarcely less lawless in her eyes than a 
disseisin. 

" This dame was quite able to guide the helm herself. 
. . . There was a panic; some great house had fallen. 
Mr. Peel was from home when the news arrived, which 
came on a Saturday night. E-umor immediately puffed 
out her livid cheeks, and began to throw out ugly hints ; 
and she did not spare the Peels, who were at this time 
connected with a bank on which a run was apprehended. 
The next morning Mrs. Peel came down-stairs to break- 
fast, dressed in her very best suit, and seeing her daugh- 
ter less handsomely attired than she in her politic brain 
judged expedient, she desired her to go up-stairs and put 
on her very best clothes. 

" She counselled her also as to her looks. ^ Look as 
blithe as you can,' said she, ' for depend upon it, if the 
folks see us looking glum to-day, they will be all at the 
Bank to-morrow.' So out they sallied to church ; and 
straight on in their ample garments they sailed, slowly, 



12 SIR ROBERT PEEL, 

serene, wearing no false colors, saluted and saluting in 
return, holding their own, making no tacks, neither port- 
ing nor starboarding their helms, but proceeding as 
though they could sweep over any ugly-looking craft 
which might cross them. 

" And we may fancy some of their humbler female 
neighbors mentally pricing their gowns as they passed, 
with an ' Oh, bless you, they are as safe as the Church ; ' 
for people will estimate solvency, rather illogically, by 
what has been already expended." 

After a time the hand-loom weavers began to fear that 
the introduction of machinery would deprive them of 
their living. A mob gathered, and demolished the 
spinning-jennies and every machine turned by water or 
horses. 

Mr. Peel, incensed at such conduct, at once removed 
his works from Blackburn to Burton-on-Trent, in Staf- 
fordshire, and built three mills, his fortune having so 
increased that he was able to cut a canal costing nine 
thousand pounds to supply one of these mills with 
water. 

He used to say that, barring accidents, a man might 
be what he chose ; so, never disheartened, he faced 
calmly all difficulties, and overcame them. 

Late in life Mr. Peel moved with his family to Ard- 
wick Green, near Manchester, where the young lad, 
Robert, used to visit his grandparents. A little time 
before the elder Peel died, his wife said to him, " Rob- 
ert, I hope that I may live a few months after thee." — 
" Why ? " he asked. " Robert," was the reply, " thou 
hast been always a kind, good husband to me, thou hast 
been a man well thought of, and I should like to stay 
by thee to the last, and keep thee all right." He died 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 13 

at the age of seventy-two, and his wife survived him 
about nine months, dying at the age of seventy-three. 
His motto was " Industry," which well described his 
busy life. 

His third son, Eobert, the father of the Prime Minis- 
ter, inherited not only his name, but his energy, devo- 
tion to business, and his ability. When he was fourteen 
he declared that he would be the founder of a family, 
and that he would acquire great wealth. He was ridi- 
culed for this by his elder brothers, but his words 
proved true. When he was eighteen he told his father 
that they were "too thick upon the ground," and he 
would go elsewhere if he could receive five hundred pounds 
to begin life with. This proposition was not acceded to, 
but the young man was made a partner in the cotton 
trade by his maternal uncle, Mr. Haworth. He was not 
afraid of work. "For many a day," says Sir Lawrence 
Peel, "his life was one of hard, incessant labor. He 
would rise at night from his bed when there was a like- 
lihood of bad weather, to visit the bleaching grounds ; 
and one night in each week he used to sit up all night, 
attended by his pattern-drawer, to receive any new pat- 
terns which the London coach, arriving at midnight, 
might bring down, for at first they were followers and 
imitators of the London work. But they soon aspired 
to lead their masters, and it was soon apparent to the 
Londoners themselves that their trade would desert 
them, and flow into these new channels." 

Mr. Haworth retired from business, and Mr. Yates 
became senior partner. When the new plans of young 
Peel met with remonstrance from the older employes, 
Mr. Yates would say, " The will of our Eobert is law 
here." 



14 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

He boarded in the house of Mr. Yates, paying a very- 
moderate sum for his board. He found the home addi- 
tionally pleasant from the presence of a child, Ellen, 
whom, while yet a schoolgirl, he resolved sometime to win 
for his wife. At eighteen, pretty, vivacious, and sweet in 
disposition, she married the man of thirty -six, who had 
waited, for her, and had by this time become wealthy. 
Though naturally fond of society, she accepted her hus- 
band's quiet, domestic habits, and made a most excel- 
lent wife, and mother of the future Prime Minister. 

Of their six sons and five daughters, Robert was their 
eldest son and third child. When his father was told of 
the birth of his son, he fell upon his knees, and returned 
thanks to God for the blessing, and then and there con- 
secrated his boy to his country. From that time on, 
while his fortune doubled and trebled into many mil- 
lions, his one hope and thought was that Robert might 
be great. Though not a scholar himself, he desired to 
make his boy a model of scholarship. He would lift 
him upon the small round table beside the breakfast- 
table, and encourage him to recite, that he might be- 
come an orator. At twelve years of age he would desire 
him to repeat all he could remember of the sermon each 
Sunday ; to ask questions, that he might understand any 
obscure passages in the words of the preacher. 

As the father had become a member of the House of 
Commons in 1790, he talked daily with his son about mat- 
ters of finance, the condition of Ireland, and everything 
pertaining to the national welfare. He held before him 
the example of Pitt, whose fairness, candor, and abili- 
ties were the theme of never-ending praise. "No min- 
ister," he said in a speech in the House of Commons, 
"ever understood so well the commercial interests of 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 15 

the country. He knew that the true sources of its 
greatness lay in its productive industry. The late min- 
ister had been the benefactor of his country, and had 
neglected no interest but his own.'^ He took his child 
to the House to hear the eloquent speeches of Fox and 
Pitt. 

In 1800 he had been given a baronetcy as a reward for 
his support of his Majesty's advisers, and because his 
firm had subscribed ten thousand pounds towards the 
war with France. 

The boy idolized his father, and imbibed his Tory sen- 
timents and prejudices, many of which he had to give 
up later in life. As a result of all this, as Mr. F. C. 
Montague says in his brief Life of Peel, the boy "had 
no childhood, he never possessed the unlabored charm 
of those who have once been downright children. He 
was good and gentle, docile and studious, observant and 
thoughtful ; but he was morbidly sensitive, shrank from 
the rough ways of his equals in years, and preferred the 
society of his elders. He thus acquired a certain for- 
mality and stiffness, as of a self-conscious child, which 
remained with him all his life, and led those who did 
not know him to think that he had no heart." 

"He would walk a mile round," says his cousin. Sir 
Lawrence, "rather than encounter the rude jests of the 
Bury lads, which his young companions bore with more 
philosophy." 

He adds that m spite of some disadvantages of this 
early training, Eobert " received an early aim, one great 
advantage. He was stimulated to exertion by the 
thought that great things were expected from him." 

The lad was sent to Harrow to school, where he was 
quiet and studious, preferring long walks by himself to 



16 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

games, and was pains-taking in his work. Lord Byron, 
who was his schoolfellow, wrote of him: "Peel, the 
orator and statesman that was, or is, or is to be, was my 
form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove. 
We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate 
friend. There were always great hopes of Peel amongst 
us all, masters and scholars, and he has not disappointed 
them. As a scholar, he was greatly my superior ; as a 
declaimer and actor, I was reckoned at least his equal ; 
as a schoolboy out of school, I was always in scrapes, 
and he never ; and in school he always knew his lesson, 
and I rarely ; but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as 
well ; and in general information, history, etc., I think 
I was his superior, as well as of most boys of my 
standing." 

From Harrow, Robert, at eighteen, went to Christ 
Church, Oxford. Here, besides giving attention to reg- 
ular work, he found recreation in boating, cricket, and 
riding. He became a close friend of his tutor. Rev. 
Charles Lloyd, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. 

When he was twenty, he received a double first class 
in classics and mathematics, standing alone in the math- 
ematical first class. The honor was so gratifying to his 
father that for a long time Sir Robert could not speak of 
it without shedding tears. 

The following year, 1809, Sir Robert obtained for his 
son a seat in Parliament, from the ancient Irish city of 
Cashel. At twenty-one, he was indeed the favored child 
of fortune ; very rich, of fine physique, tall and strong, 
cultivated in mind, with one goal before him, the high- 
est political position in England, — that of Prime 
Minister. 

The father made no secret of his ambition for his son, 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 17 

SO that young Peel was regarded as a candidate for the 
office of Prime Minister from the first. One of the witty 
journals of the day published as a satire, " the last will 
and testament of a patriot : . . . I give and bequeath 
my patience to Mr. Robert Peel; he will want it all 
before he becomes Prime Minister of England ; but in the 
event of such a contingency^ my patience is to revert to 
the people of England, who will stand sadly in need of it." 

"It was still the fashion," says Sir Lawrence, "to 
wear powder in the hair at a dinner or evening party ; 
and this fashion, which concealed the sandy color of 
his hair, and suited his complexion, became him well. 
With good features, a sweet smile, a well-formed head, 
high and ample forehead, and a countenance, which, 
when animated, was not wanting in expression or fire, he 
was generally thought a very good-looking young man. 
. . . His appearance and manners were those of a gen- 
tleman. In any society where he was intimate he was 
an amusing, intelligent, and instructive companion. He 
had much humor, was a keen observer, with a sharp eye 
to detect the ridiculous, and a propensity to expose it, 
Avhich he did slyly, with a quiet relish of absurdity. 
Still this was a propensity which he kept in check, and 
feared to indulge. 

"He conversed well, and when any subject interested 
him his face lighted up, and you saw by the animation of his 
manner and the glow of his countenance, his enthusias- 
tic admiration of genius, nobleness, or any greatness. . . . 
He had always that same smooth outside and softness 
of speech, which have been quizzed as a ' bland suavity.' 
Under this smooth, and to strangers too cold, outside, 
beat, however, a warm English heart, which prosperity 
never chilled nor hardened." 



18 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

During Peel's first session of Parliament he made no 
speech. When he spoke in seconding the Address, in 
reply to the Speech from the Throne in January, 1810, it 
was with modest assurance and excellent voice. Peel's 
first connection with office was as the private secretary 
of Lord Liverpool. A letter written by him fell under 
the eye of GeOrge III., who praised it as a " good 
business-like letter," which fact greatly pleased Sir 
Robert Peel, the father. 

When Mr. Spencer Perceval became Prime Minister, 
Peel was made Under Colonial Secretary. This adminis- 
tration came to an end suddenly in May, 1812, by the 
murder of Perceval in the lobby of the House of Com- 
mons. Bellingham, a Liverpool broker, having some 
claims on the Russian government, appealed to England 
to intercede for him. No notice being taken of this 
request, he decided to kill the first member of the gov- 
ernment whom he met. Meeting Mr. Perceval first, he 
fired at him with a pistol, and the Prime Minister fell 
dead. The assassin was executed. Lord Liverpool then 
became Prime Minister, and Peel accepted the position 
of Chief Secretary for Ireland. 

He was only twenty -four, and called to a most difficult 
position. The country, as usual, was unsettled through 
contending factions. O'Connell, the great agitator, was 
opposed to the appointment of so young a man, and 
said the English had sent to Ireland "a raw youth 
squeezed out of the workings of I know not what factory 
in England, . . . sent over here before he got rid of the 
foppery of perfumed handkerchiefs and thin shoes." 

There is no doubt that Peel intended to be fair and 
just ; but as many thought he was favorable to the 
Orangemen, he was nicknamed " Orange Peel " by the 
followers of O'Connell. 



SIR EOBERT PEEL. 19 

He held the position for six years, and did some good 
work for Ireland. He established an efficient police, — 
called to this day in Ireland, "Peelers." He viewed 
with dismay the lack of education, and with intense 
interest the efforts of the poor to procure schools for 
their children. He said in the House of Commons : " It 
was a thing quite frequent for working people to deprive 
themselves of all advantage from the labor of their chil- 
dren, in order that they might have their whole time 
devoted to literary acquirements ; and he knew one 
parish in which there were no fewer than eleven even- 
ing schools, where adults used to repair after the toils 
of the day, in order to procure that culture which had 
been denied in their earlier years." 

He urged that the " only rational plan of education in 
Ireland was one which should be extended impartially 
to children of all religious persuasions ; one which did 
not profess to make converts ; one which, while it im- 
parted general religious instruction, left those who were 
its objects to obtain their particular religious discipline 
elsewhere." 

Peel and O'Connell were always at enmity. As the 
disgraceful fashion of duelling was still somewhat in 
vogue. Peel sent to O'Connell that he was ready to accept 
a challenge, if O'Connell thought he had been ill treated 
in language. Later a duel was arranged, but was pre- 
vented by the authorities. 

Weary of his secretaryship, Peel resigned in the 
summer of 1818 and went to the Highlands for a holi- 
day. He had been returned to Parliament from his 
own university, Oxford, — a great honor, and one much 
desired by the eloquent Canning ; but the latter was too 
much of a Liberal, and was also in favor of Catholic 
Emancipation, to which Peel was heartily opposed. 



20 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

Peel was now to make a name for himself as a finan- 
cier. During the war with France, the paper money of 
England had depreciated twenty-five per cent. Honor- 
able gentlemen met and "pledged themselves to believe 
that bank-notes still are, as they always have been, 
equivalent to legal coin for the internal purposes of the 
country." 

Lord Brougham justly observed that "there was but 
one further step for such a body to take, and that was 
to declare that two and two are equal to six, and to 
imprison any one who reckoned differently." 

The resumption of cash payments seemed a necessity 
for the stability of the business of the country ; but it was 
opposed by many, among them Sir Robert Peel, the father, 
who presented a petition against it. Inasmuch as he was 
a great employer of labor — fifteen thousand men worked 
for him — and he paid so large an amount into the treas- 
ury — forty thousand pounds to the excise on printed 
goods alone — his name carried great weight. A com- 
mittee of the House, composed of such men as Canning 
and Sir James Mackintosh, was appointed to consider 
this question of resumption ; and young Eobert Peel, 
scarcely more than thirty years of age, was made chair- 
man. In bringing forward the report. Peel made one of 
the great speeches of his life in advocacy of a gradual 
return to cash payments. He declared himself in favor 
of "the old, the vulgar doctrine, as some people have 
called it, — that the true standard of value consisted in 
a definite quantity of gold bullion." 

He regretted that he was compelled to differ from one 
to whose authority he had always bowed with reverence ; 
meaning, of course, his beloved father. 

The next day the resolutions were carried without a 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 21 

dissenting voice. Of course some persons suffered, as 
those who had contracted debts in the depreciated cur- 
rency were obliged to pay more than the original debt ; 
but confidence was restored, and prosperity followed in 
time. 

A year later, June 8, 1820, Peel, at thirty-two, was 
married to Julia, the youngest daughter of General Sir 
John Floyd, who had distinguished himself in India. 
The home-life of the Peels seemed all that anybody 
could ask or wish ; they were devoted to each other, 
congenial in taste, with every wish gratified through 
their wealth, though they gave generously. 

Extremely fond of art. Peel gathered into his home a 
collection of English portraits : Pope, by Eichardson ; 
Samuel Johnson, by Eeynolds ; Southey, by Lawrence ; 
Byron, by Phillips ; Wordsworth, by Pickersgill. Next 
to George IV., Peel was the best patron of Lawrence. 
Wilkie painted for him his John Knox Preaching. His 
collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings was cele- 
brated. Into his home Peel brought the treasures of 
ancient and modern literature. He loved the great 
authors of Greece and Kome, and always insisted upon 
the value of classical studies. 

" His reading," says his cousin, " was at all times 
various and extensive. Far from limiting his reading 
to the works on the side which he advocated, he seemed 
to read as much, or more, of those which most ably 
impugned his opinions. To this practice, allied to that 
of questioning himself as to the grounds of his opinions, 
may be attributed his great readiness in anticipating and 
encountering objections. He was well versed in the 
light literature of the day, with which his conversa- 
tion showed his familiarity. This appears also in his 



22 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

speeches ; but the quotations in them are generally from 
an earlier school. He quoted more largely from Dryden 
than from any other English poet." 

Just before Peel's marriage, the worst of the Georges, 
George IV., came to the throne. He had married at 
thirty-three, Caroline of Brunswick, to please his father, 
George III., who therefore raised his income from 
£60,000 per year to £125,000, of which £25,000 was to 
be set aside annually towards the payment of his debts, 
which now amounted to £636,000. Besides this the 
profligate young man was to receive £27,000 in prep- 
aration for marriage, £28,000 for jewelry and plate, 
£26,000 for the completion of Carlton House, and 
£50,000 as a jointure to her Eoyal Highness Caroline, 
of which she would accept only £35,000. 

George IV. quarrelled with her from the first, and 
separated from her after the birth of their lovely 
daughter Charlotte, whose death in early womanhood 
brought grief to the whole English nation. 

When George IV. became king, on the death of his 
father, he desired a divorce from the Queen, and the 
government of Lord Liverpool brought in a bill of pains 
and penalties against her on a charge of immoral con- 
duct. That a man so notorious should require such 
purity of life in another, caused the most open con- 
tempt for him. He was shot at one night in going to 
the theatre, and the glass in the carriage Avindows was 
broken. Canning eloquently pleaded the cause of the 
Queen, and Brougham threw his whole heart into the 
matter. Public opinion became so violent that the bill 
had to be dropped, and great rejoicing followed. 

George IV. never forgave those who had befriended 
the Queen. At the coronation in Westminster Abbey, 



SIE ROBERT PEEL. 23 

July 29, 1821, she was refused admittance, and the next 
day at Drury Lane Theatre was taken ill, and died Aug- 
ust 7. She desired to be buried beside her father at 
Brunswick. The malignant King declared that her body 
should not be carried through the city. The people 
declared that it should, and it was, though a bloody en- 
counter took place with the Life Guards at Hyde Park 
Corner. The coffin arrived at its destination August 26. 

Thackeray says, "I look through all his life, and recog- 
nize but a bow and a grin. I try and take him to pieces, 
and find silk stockings, padding, stays, a coat with 
frogs and a fur collar, a star and blue ribbon, a pocket- 
handkerchief prodigiously scented, one of Truefitt's best 
nutty brown wigs reeking with oil, a set of teeth, and a 
huge black stock, under-waistcoats, more under-waistcoats, 
and then nothing." 

Of Queen Caroline he says, " As I read her trial in 
history, I vote she is not guilty. I don't say it is an 
impartial verdict, but as one reads her story the heart 
bleeds for the kindly, generous, outraged creature. If 
wrong there be, let it lie at his door who wickedly thrust 
her from it. Spite of her follies, the great hearty people 
of England loved and protected and pitied her. ^ God 
bless you ! we will bring your husband back to you,' 
said a mechanic one day, as she told Lady Charlotte 
Bury, with tears streaming down her cheeks. They 
could not bring her husband back ; they could not cleanse 
that selfish heart." 

Peel was glad to have been out of office during this 
disgraceful contest. He did not approve of excluding 
the name of the Queen from the Liturgy, as George IV. 
wished, and as the government conceded ; but he spoke 
against the motion to censure the ministers, as that 



24 SIB ROBERT PEEL. 

would have transferred the government to their oppo- 
nents. 

After twelve years of Parliamentary life, Mr. Peel 
became a member of the Cabinet in 1822, as Home Sec- 
retary. Here he carried out great reforms in criminal 
law, and in law relating to juries. 

The noble Sir Samuel Romilly and Sir James Mackin- 
tosh had labored in this field before him. Romilly had 
secured in 1812 the repeal of a statute which made it a 
capital offence for a soldier or a mariner to beg without 
a pass from a magistrate or commanding officer. For 
stealing in a shop, goods of the value of live shillings, or 
in a dwelling-house, or on board a vessel in a navigable 
river, property of the value of forty shillings, the pen- 
alty was death. Eomilly showed in his book on the 
criminal laws, that for shoplifting and other offences of 
the same nature, from 1749 to 1771, one hundred and 
nine persons had been executed at the Old Bailey. Men 
were put to death for maliciously cutting hop-vines in 
plantations, or wantonly injuring the works of the Bed- 
ford Level, or personating Greenwich pensioners. 

Queen Elizabeth made it a capital offence for any 
person above fourteen to be found associating for a 
month with persons calling themselves Egyptians. This, 
" the most barbarous statute, perhaps," says Romilly, 
"that ever disgraced our criminal code, was executed down 
to the reign of King Charles the First. Lord Hale men- 
tions thirteen persons having in his time been executed 
upon it at our assizes." 

In 1816 George Bennet, a boy of ten, for shoplifting, 
lay in the Old Bailey under penalty of death. A few 
months later a boy of sixteen, for highway robbery, was 
to be hanged, but he was respited the night before the 
execution. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 25 

Romilly showed that these lads were trained to steal, 
and did these acts at the bidding of men who profited 
by them, while the boys were put to death. Stealing 
fish from any pond was punished by transportation for 
seven years. 

Peel knew that society could never be reformed by 
such brutal measures ; that education and Christianity 
must do what the gallows could never do. He was in 
a position of power, and would use that power for the 
public welfare. Speaking in the House of Commons, he 
said : " As the statute stood, a man who stole his neigh- 
bor's prayer-book as they sat in the same pew at chapel 
together, would be liable to suffer death for it." 

He showed that in the seven years ending in Decem- 
ber, 1816, there were committed to the prisons of Eng- 
land and Wales, 47,522 persons. For the seven years 
ending in December, 1825, the number doubled! During 
the first seven years, 4,126 persons were sentenced to 
death ; during the second seven years, 7,770 persons. The 
death penalty did not deter the people from crimes. 

Peel brought in five bills by which nearly one hundred 
felonies were removed from the list of capital offences. 
These bills were passed. Indignities formerly practised 
upon the bodies of those who had committed suicide 
were abolished. 

In the year 1825 Peel carried a bill consolidating no 
less than sixty -six acts relating to juries. Many injus- 
tices were thus done away. Before this, a juryman, who 
took bribes or gave improper verdicts, forfeited his 
goods, was driven out of doors with his wife and chil- 
dren, and was made infamous for life. During Peel's 
first tenure of the Home Office, two hundred and seventy- 
eight Acts relating to criminal law were repealed. 



26 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

Peel had become the acknowledged leader of the House 
of Commons. The brilliant and eloquent George Can- 
ning had reached the goal of his ambition, the position 
of Prime Minister, in April, 1827, and had died the same 
year, August 8. Though George IV. hated him because 
he had befriended Queen Caroline, and because he favored 
Eeform and Catholic Emancipation, the people of both 
England and Ireland looked to him for great measures 
in the future. 

He had won his way to renown largely through his 
genius. His father, the eldest son of Stratford Canning, 
had been disinherited, on account of an attachment dis- 
approved by his family. He became a lawyer, married 
Mary Anne Costello, a beautiful girl with no money, 
and sinking under the burden of supporting himself and 
a family, died broken-hearted, April 11, 1771, three years 
after marriage. His wife went upon the stage, but left 
it, after thirty years, in 1801, when her son George 
transferred his pension of five hundred pounds to her 
and his sister. 

George was adopted by his father's brother, who was 
a banker ; was educated at Oxford, and at the age of 
thirty married Joan, daughter of Major-General John 
Scott, who brought him a fortune of £100,000. After 
this, like Disraeli, he became independent financially, 
with time to work in matters of state, and in all that 
cultivates the mind. 

After Canning's death, the Duke of Wellington became 
Prime Minister, — Lord Goderich held the ofiice for a 
very brief period, — and Peel retained his place as Home 
Secretary. 

The year 1829 was an eventful year for England as 
well as for Peel. Catholic Emancipation had now to 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 27 

be met ; for the country was on the verge of civil war. 
He had been told that through his political life, "Ire- 
land would be his principal difficulty," and certainly this 
was true in the early part of it. 

The story of Ireland is full of interest — painful inter- 
est for the most part : the battle-ground of Danes and 
Celts in the early centuries ; converted from Paganism, 
by St. Patrick it is said, in the fourth century ; noted 
in the sixth for its monasteries and institutions of 
learning ; overrun, for three hundred years, by the 
Norsemen, who burned the cathedrals, and slaughtered 
the monks, the famous round towers being used proba- 
bly in defence against these invaders ; the Norsemen 
overcome at last in the great battle of Clontarf, near 
Dublin, in 1014, by Brian, the Irish monarch, though he 
was killed with the battle-axe of a Viking ; conquered by 
Henry II. of England, 1169-72, who obtained a Bull from 
Pope Adrian IV., favoring the conquest, and desiring 
Henry to execute in the island " whatever shall pertain 
to the honor of God, and the welfare of the land." 

After the Norman conquest there were of course con- 
stant feuds between the Norman adventurers and the 
native chiefs. Matters grew worse when Henry VIII., 
by the Act of Supremacy, in 1535, became " Supreme 
Head of the Church of England," suppressed the Boman 
Catholic churches, and confiscated their property. From 
this time on, there were constant revolts against English 
rule. 

One by one, like the Earl of Desmond, the leaders 
were conquered, and their vast estates divided among 
English settlers. " Munster," says the Hon. Emily 
Lawless in " The Story of Ireland," " which at the 
beginning of the Desmond rising had been accounted 



28 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

the most fertile province in Ireland, was now little 
better than a desert. Not once or twice, but many 
times, the harvest had been burnt and destroyed ; and 
great as had been the slaughter, numerous as were the 
executions, they had been far eclipsed by the multitude 
of those who had died of sheer famine. . . . 

" To replace this older population thus starved, slaugh- 
tered, made away with by sword and pestilence, with new 
colonists, was the scheme of the hour. Desmond's vast 
estate, covering nearly six hundred thousand Irish acres, 
not counting waste land, had all been declared forfeit to 
the Crown. This and a considerable portion of territory 
also forfeit in Leinster, was now offered to English col- 
onists upon the most advantageous terms. No rent was 
to be paid at first, and for ten years the undertakers 
were to be allowed to send their exports duty free." 

The colonization scheme proved a failure, as English 
laborers did not desire to go to Ireland, and riots usually 
ensued if they went. The Earls Tirone and Tirconnell, 
fearful for their lives, went into exile in Rome, the 
former dying blind and broken-hearted. Their entire 
estates of six counties went to the Crown, regardless of 
all sub-proprietors who had had no share in rebellion. 
James I. parcelled out this land to English and Scottish 
settlers, and it became known as the "Plantation of 
Ulster." 

Other lands, on one pretext or another, were confiscated. 
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, had been made 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under Charles I., and by 
various methods he had obtained more lands and money 
for the King. 

Great Britain, as well as Ireland, was in a state of fer- 
ment. Strafford was impeached on twenty-eight counts, 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 29 

the chief being that he had incensed his Majesty against 
the members of the late Parliament, telling him " they 
had denied to supply him, and that his Majesty having 
tried the affections of his people, and been refused, he 
was absolved from all rules of government, and that he 
had an army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce 
the kingdom." Strafford was executed May 12, 1641. 

Ireland was ripe for rebellion. The army which Straf- 
ford had collected in Ireland, and which Charles, against 
his will, had been obliged to disband, had stored its arms 
in Dublin Castle. The plan was to seize these arms, dis- 
tribute them to the troops, turn out the Protestant set- 
tlers, and free Ireland from English rule. The plan 
failed, but not until the slaughter on both sides had been 
terrible. Men, women, and infants were massacred, so 
that Ireland lost one-third of her population. The Cath- 
olics demanded the restoration of the Catholic Church, 
with all its original privileges, and an independent Irish 
Parliament. These Charles did not dare to' grant. 

Ireland remained in a state of anarchy till in August, 
1649, Cromwell went over with twelve thousand troops 
to subdue the island. He took the garrisons at Drogheda 
and Wexford, giving no quarter, sending word back to 
Parliament : " I believe we put to the sword the whole 
number of the defendants. I do not think thirty es- 
caped. ... I wish all honest hearts may give the glory 
of this to God alone." 

The loss of life during the eight years of civil war has 
been estimated at six hundred thousand. Those who had 
participated in the rebellion were driven into exile, and 
vast tracts of land were parcelled out among Cromwell's 
soldiers. 

Under Charles II., Ireland still suffered. In 1663 



30 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

Irish ships were excluded from the privileges of English 
ships under the Navigation Act. In 1665 and 1680 Irish 
live-stock or meat and butter were forbidden to be ex- 
ported from Ireland into England. Later it was declared 
that no goods should be imported from the colonies to 
Ireland, and the exportation of Irish manufactured wool 
to all countries was prohibited in 1699. Smuggling re- 
sulted ; but Irish industries were soon either crippled or 
destroyed. The hatred towards England was, if possible, 
intensified by all this. 

After William and Mary came to the throne in 1689, 
and James II. was defeated by William, on the banks of 
the Boyne, July 1, 1690, matters grew worse for Ireland. 
William gave as rewards for military or civil service, one 
hundred and thirty thousand acres of land in Ireland to 
Bentinck, afterwards Lord Portland ; one hundred thou- 
sand acres to Keppel, afterwards Lord Albemarle ; and to 
other friends in like manner. Severe penal laws were 
passed against the Catholics. A reward of one hundred 
pounds was offered for the conviction of any priest who 
exercised his religious functions, with the penalty, im- 
prisonment for life. 

" The Penal Laws," says Justin Huntly McCarthy in 
his " Ireland since the Union," " did their best to insure 
that no such person should exist as an Irish Catholic. 
... A Catholic could not sit upon the benches of the 
Lords or Commons of the Irish Parliament. He could 
not record his vote for the election of a member of Par- 
liament ; he could not serve in the army or the navy ; he 
could not plead at the bar, or give judgment from the 
bench ; he could not become a magistrate, or a member 
of a corporation, or serve on grand juries, or in vestries ; 
he could not be a sheriff, gamekeeper, or a constable ; he 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 31 

could not give education ; he could not receive educa- 
tion ; he could not send his children abroad to be edu- 
cated. ... 

" Every Catholic was liable to a fine of sixty pounds a 
month for not attending a place of Protestant worship, 
and at any time any two justices of the peace could call 
a Catholic over sixteen years before them, and bestow 
what property he possessed upon his next of kin if he 
refused to turn from his faith. ... A Protestant might 
at any time compel a Catholic to sell him his horse, how- 
ever valuable, for five pounds, and the horses of Catholics 
could always be seized without payment, for the use of 
the militia. . . . 

" The eldest son of a Catholic, upon apostatizing, be- 
came heir-at-law to the whole estate of his father, and 
reduced his father to the position of a mere life-tenant. 
An apostate wife was immediately freed from her hus- 
band's control, and assigned a certain proportion of her 
husband's property. Any child, however young, who 
professed the Protestant faith, was immediately removed 
from its parent's care, and a portion of the parental 
property assigned to it. Furthermore, no marriage be- 
tween a Catholic and a Protestant was recognized by the 
law." 

While these laws after a time were not usually en- 
forced, the greatest bitterness was engendered by them. 
The condition of the people was pitiable. Dr. W. K. 
Sullivan, president of Queen's College, Cork, says, " The 
destruction of manufacturing industry, the restriction of 
trade, the falling of the land out of cultivation, the con- 
version of arable land into pasture, the drain from ab- 
sentee rents and pensions, and the cost of imported 
luxuries, had gradually impoverished the kingdom to an 
alarming extent. ... 



32 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

"The peasants were always on the brink of starva- 
tion, and were now entering upon a period of famines — 
five or six in the course of twenty years — culnxinating 
in the dire famine and its accompanying pestilence, or 
hunger-fever, of 1741, in which four hundred thousand 
persons perished." 

All this injustice helped to bring about the insurrection 
of 1798. 

The United Irishmen, an association of men who led 
the revolt, consisted of both Protestants and Catholics. 
The rebellion was suppressed, and a union with Great 
Britain was effected in 1800 ; not a union of willing 
people, but a union obtained in part by conquest, and in 
part by corrupt use of money. 

To eifect this union, says Mr. George Sigerson, Fellow 
of the Eoyal University, Dublin, in " Two Centuries of 
Irish History," " compensations were to be granted, not 
only to borough proprietors, and for primary and second- 
ary interests in counties, and purchasers, but to barris- 
ters and private individuals. Lord Castlereagh consid- 
ered that £1,500,000 would be required to effect all these 
compensations. 

" The flesh-pots were open, and the fumes intoxicat- 
ing. They attracted all appetites if they did not satisfy 
all hunger. . . . Other gallant hearts were tempted in 
vain. Cornwallis went on with the evil work, groaning 
over its filthiness, fully conscious of his own iniquity. 
It was the wish of his life to ' avoid all this dirty busi- 
ness,' but he carried it on. His was ' the most cursed of 
all situations,' but he did not resign it. He declared he 
longed to kick those whom he courted ; but he preferred 
to play the hypocrite. . . . He persisted in terrorizing 
and in tainting, and, while corrupting, he moaned over 



SIB ROBERT PEEL. 33 

the corruptness of the Union proselytes : ' My occupa- 
tion is now of the most unpleasant nature — negotiating 
and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven. 
I despise and hate myself every hour for engaging in 
such dirty work.' " 

There was an uprising against the Union three years 
later, July 23, 1803, when Robert Emmet, young and 
gifted, attempted to free his country through a forlorn 
hope. He could have escaped to France, but desiring to 
see once more the young lady to whom he was engaged, 
Sarah, the daughter of the eloquent Curran, he remained, 
was arrested, and hanged September 20, writing, just 
before his death, that touching letter to her brother 
Richard, so often quoted : " I never did tell you how 
I idolized her. It was not with a wild or unfounded 
passion, but it was an attachment increasing every 
hour, from an admiration of the purity of her mind, 
and respect for her talents. . . . My love, Sarah ! 
It was not thus that I thought to have requited your 
affection. I had hoped to be a prop round which your 
affections might have clung, and which would never 
have been shaken ; but a rude blast has snapped it, and 
they have fallen over a grave ! " 

From this time onward, Ireland, under the leadership 
of a young barrister, Daniel O'Connell, fought for Cath- 
olic Emancipation, — relief from the civil and political 
disabilities under which Roman Catholics still suffered. 
William Pitt, before the Act of Union was passed, had 
encouraged the people of Ireland to feel that emancipa- 
tion would follow. George III. was, however, unalter- 
ably opposed to it, believing that Protestant ascendency 
was a necessity for the control of Ireland. 

Pitt proposed a measure for the relief of the Catholics 



34 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

in 1801, but the King opposed it, and Pitt and his 
friends resigned. When he again became Prime Minis- 
ter in 1804, he promised the obstinate George III. not 
to bring up the Catholic question again. Pitt died Jan- 
uary 23, 1806. Fox, who had labored for Catholic 
Emancipation, died in September of the same year. 

Another great man was giving his heart and voice to 
Catholic Emancipation, — the eloquent and noble Henry 
Grattan. He, a Protestant, had obtained for Ireland a 
few years of comparative peace and prosperity. In 
1782, at an opportune moment, after England had lost 
the American Colonies, he had won for his country an 
independent Parliament. Ireland, in gratitude, made 
him a gift of fifty thousand pounds. Measures of relief 
were passed by this Parliament. Public buildings were 
constructed, and the people seemed happier than for 
centuries before. Yet there were still many causes of 
discontent. The disabilities against Catholics had not 
been removed, nor the commercial restrictions. In 1785 
Pitt had favored the importation of goods through 
Great Britain into Ireland or vice versa, without increase 
of duty ; but a number of English towns remonstrated 
so vigorously — the Lancashire manufacturers sending a 
petition against the proposal with eighty thousand sig- 
natures — that the measure was dropped. 

There were various factions also in Ireland. " Eirst 
of all," says Mr. Gladstone, reviewing the condition *of 
Ireland under Grattan's Parliament, "there was a small 
section of the population who conducted the Govern- 
ment mainly with a view to jobbing, and to personal inter- 
ests — a very important section, on account of the power 
which they not uniformly, but frequently, exercised 
upon the English Government with regard to its policy 
in Ireland. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 35 

" Then there Avas the Presbyterian party ; though they 
were not less Protestant than the other, they had little 
or nothing to do with the government. They, on the 
contrar}^, had at that period a strong inclination to 
republicanism. Then there was the executive govern- 
ment and the British interest concentrated in Dublin 
Castle, which has ever since, and certainly recently, 
become a proverbial expression, conveying but little to 
the minds of Englishmen, but conveying a great deal to 
the minds of Irishmen. It exercised a great and power- 
ful influence. 

"Then I look at the Homan Catholic majority, but I 
cannot treat the Koman Catholic majority of that period 
as being entirely one. It is quite clear that both the 
Roman Catholic aristocracy and prelates stood in a posi- 
tion distinct from the mass of the Eoman Catholic 
people, and were liable to act on inducements held out 
to them from this side of the water. Then there was 
the great interest of the landlords." 

After saying that the Irish Parliament " made great 
and beneficial changes in the laws of Ireland," Glad- 
stone adds : " Whatever vices it had, and whatever 
defects it had, it had a true and genuine sentiment of 
nationality ; and, gentlemen, the loss of the spirit of 
nationality is the heaviest and the most deplorable and 
the most degrading loss that any country can undergo. 
In the Irish Parliament, with all its faults, the spirit of 
nationality subsisted ; and I say it with grief and shame 
that it is my own conclusion and my own conviction 
that the main object of the Irish Legislative Union on 
the part of those who planned it and brought it about, 
was to depress and weaken, and, if possible, to extin- 
guish, that spirit of Irish nationality." 



36 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

In 1793 Catholics were allowed to vote, though not 
to sit in Parliament. They were also allowed to hold 
any commission in the army up to the rank of colonel, 
in Ireland, but not in Great Britain. 

In 1795 Grattan brought a bill for the relief of Cath- 
olics again before Parliament, but it was defeated, and 
the discontent soon developed into the rebellion of 1798. 
Grattan opposed the Union in an eloquent speech. " Yet 
I do not give up the country," he said. " I see her in a 
swoon, but she is not dead ; though in her tomb she lies 
helpless and motionless, still there is on her lips a 
spirit of life, and on her cheek a glow of beauty." 
Grattan died in 1820, and was buried in Westminster 
Abbey with distinguished honors. 

Sydney Smith said of him : " The highest attainments 
of human genius were within his reach ; but he thought 
the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men 
happy and free, and in that straight line he kept for 
fifty years, without one side-look, one yielding thought, 
one motive in his heart which might not have laid open 
to the view of God or man." 

Daniel O'Connell took up Catholic Emancipation long 
before Grattan had finished his work. In 1823 a new 
Catholic association was organized, and O'Connell 
became its leading spirit. Two years later, England, 
becoming alarmed at the rapidity of its growth, passed 
an Act of Parliament for its suppression. It might be 
suppressed in name, but could not be in spirit. 

O'Connell determined to stand for Clare, and be 
elected to Parliament even though Catholics were 
excluded. The " suppressed " association at once raised 
fourteen thousand pounds to pay his election expenses. 
Immense meetings were held, and Ireland was at white 
heat. 



SIR ROBEttT PEEL. 37 

Peel all this time was strongly opposed to Catholic 
Emancipation. He had been taught from his boyhood 
that Protestant ascendency was necessary to the peace 
of Ireland, and perhaps more necessary still to the 
peace of England. He had been elected from Oxford 
University, instead of Canning, on account of his well- 
known opposition. He believed that the Union would 
be endangered, and tliat the Established Church in 
Ireland would be overthrown, if the Catholics were 
admitted to power ; the disestablishment of the Church 
was to take place later under Gladstone. 

Peel said in one of his most powerful speeches : " If 
you give them that fair proportion of political power to 
which their numbers, wealth, talents, and education will 
entitle them, can you believe that they will or can 
remain contented with the limits which you assign to 
them ? Do you think, that when they constitute, as 
they must do (not this year or next, but in the natural 
and therefore certain order of things), by far the most 
powerful body in Ireland — the body most controlling 
and directing the government of it, — do you think, I 
say, that they will view with satisfaction the state of 
your Church, or their own ? 

" Do you think that if they are constituted like other 
men ; if they have organs, senses, affections, passions, 
like yourselves ; if they are — as no doubt they are — 
sincere and zealous professors of that religious faith to 
which they belong ; if they believe your intrusive 
Church to have usurped the temporalities which it pos- 
sesses, — do you think that they will not aspire to the 
re-establishment of their own Church, in all its ancient 
splendor ? " 

Again Peel said, ^'For a space of eighteen years, I 



38 SIR ROBERT FEEL. 

have pursued one undeviating course of conduct, offering, 
during the whole of that time, an uncompromising, but 
a temperate and fair, and, as I believe, a constitutional 
resistance, to the making of any further concessions 
towards the Roman Catholics." 

O'Connell was elected to Parliament. If he were not 
allowed to take his seat, another rebelliofi was probable. 
The Irish people were only waiting for his bidding. " He 
had," says Justin McCarthy, " all the impulsiveness, the 
quick-changing emotions, the passionate, exaggerated 
loves and hatreds, the heedlessness of statement, the 
tendency to confound impressions with facts, the ebul- 
lient humor — all the other qualities that are especially 
characteristic of the Celt. . . . He had a herculean 
frame, a stately presence, a face capable of expressing 
easily and effectively the most rapid alternations of 
mood, and a voice which all hearers admit to have been 
almost unrivalled for strength and sweetness. . . . He 
spoke without studied preparation, and of course had 
all the defects of such a style. . . . He always spoke 
right to the hearts of his hearers." 

The Duke of Wellington was at this time Prime Minis- 
ter. He too was opposed to Catholic Emancipation. Peel 
wrote to the Duke that the time had come to act on the 
Catholic question. He wished to resign, but the Duke 
would not consent. What was to be done ? George IV., 
the Bishops, and the House of Lords were all heartily 
opposed to Catholic Emancipation. Peel resigned for 
Oxford, but stood for re-election, and was defeated, 
because they knew the course he would take. It required 
courage to propose and introduce a measure against which 
he had fought for eighteen years. But he had resolved 
to do it. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 39 

Peel and the Duke had an audience with George IV. 
for five hours. The monarch was furious, and the Cab- 
inet resigned. Soon he grew sorry for what he had 
done, and requested them to continue in office. 

March 5, 1829, the eventful day came. "Crowds 
began to assemble in the avenues leading to the House 
of Commons," says Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, in his Life 
and Times of Sir Robert Peel, " so early as ten o'clock, 
though it was known that the doors would not be open 
until past six in the evening. At noon an immense 
multitude had collected, and the pressure was so severe 
that many persons were slightly injured. ... A little 
after six, the gallery was opened, and the rush was 
tremendous : coats were torn, hats were lost, and sides 
were bruised ; it seemed a miracle that no lives were 
lost, and no bones broken. ... 

" On Mr. Peel, every eye was fixed : he sat with folded 
arms and compressed lips, as one who had formed his 
resolution with pain, but was resolved to maintain it 
with inflexible determination. A pin might have been 
heard to fall as he rose, and with a voice which once or 
twice faltered, moved that the clerk should read the part 
of the royal speech relating to Catholic disabilities." 

Peel spoke for four hours, making one of the great 
speeches of his life. He reviewed the history of Ire- 
land, and told the imperative need of concession to 
Ireland's demands. The cheering was so loud and pro- 
longed that it was heard in Palace Yard. 

Peel frankly said in his speech : " The credit belongs 
to others, and not to me. It belongs to Mr. Fox, to Mr. 
Grattan, to Mr. Plunkett, to the gentleman opposite, and 
to an illustrious and right honorable friend of mine who 
is now no more [Canning]. 



40 SIB ROBERT PEEL. 

" I am well aware that the fate of this measure cannot 
now be altered ; if it succeeds, the credit will belong to 
others ; if it fail, the responsibility will devolve upon 
me and upon those with whom I have acted. These 
chances, with the loss of private friendship and the 
alienation of public confidence, I must have foreseen 
and calculated upon before I ventured to recommend 
these measures. ... I am convinced that the time will 
come, though I may not live to see it, when full justice 
will be done by men of all parties to the motives on 
which I have acted." 

Peel was vilified on every hand. He was denounced 
as a traitor to his party, and as an apostate from his 
church. A man of great sensitiveness of nature, he 
must have felt all this deeply. Yet he knew what was 
in store for him. Twenty years later he wrote that he 
foresaw " the penalties to which the course I resolved to 
take would expose me : the rage of party, the rejection 
by the University of Oxford, the alienation of private 
friends, the interruption of family affections." 

Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer says in his sketch of Peel : 
" There can be little doubt that he prevented a civil war, 
in which many of the most eminent statesmen of foreign 
countries would have considered that the Irish Catholics 
were in the right." 

Peel's father, the first Sir Robert, died the following 
year. May 3, 1830, leaving each of his six sons about 
£135,000, each of his five daughters £53,000, and his son 
Robert his title to the baronetcy, the mansion of Dray- 
ton Manor, and an immense fortune. The personal 
property of the first Sir Robert exceeded £900,000. 
The probate stamp was £15,000. He lived to see his 
son Robert all that he could wish, and several of his 
other children in important ofiices. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 41 

George IV. died June 26 of the same year, 1830, and 
the citizens of London made the day of his funeral a 
holiday. The accession of his successor, William IV., 
was hailed with delight. 

Peel was now called to face another great question, 
the extension of the franchise. Lord John Eussell and 
some others had taken an active part in reform. The 
Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, was opposed, 
and said, " I am not prepared with any measure of par- 
liamentary reform, nor shall any measure of the kind be 
proposed by the government, as long as I hold my pres- 
ent position.'' 

The result Avas that the Duke did not long hold his 
position ; the government was overthrown, and the 
Keformers came into power. 

Parliamentary Reform had been agitated for years. 
In 1822 Lord John Russell's motion, "that the present 
state of representation requires serious consideration," 
was rejected by 105. Meetings were held, and petitions 
presented. Finally, March 1, 1831, Lord John brought 
in his Reform Bill. It Avas greeted with loud peals of 
laughter. The debate lasted seven nights. Peel speak- 
ing against the bill. 

Bulwer thus describes Peel at this time: "He was 
tall and powerfully built. His body somewhat bulky 
for his limbs, his head small and well formed, his 
features regular. His countenance was not what would 
be generally called expressive, but it was capable of 
taking the expression he wished to give it, humor, sar- 
casm, persuasion, and command being its alternative 
characteristics. 

" The character of the man was seen more, however, 
in the whole person than in the face. He did not stoop, 



42 SIB ROBERT PEEL. 

but he bent forwards. . . . The step showed no doubt 
or apprehension ; it could hardly be called stealthy, but 
it glided on hrmly and cautiously, without haste or swag- 
ger or unevenness ; and as he quietly walked from the 
bar to his seat, he looked round him, as if scanning the 
assembly, and when anything particular was expected, 
sat down with an air of preparation for the coming 
contest. 

" The oftener you heard him speak, the more his 
speaking gained upon you. . . . He never seemed occu- 
pied with himself. His effort was evidently directed to 
convince you, not that he was eloquent, but that he was 
right. . . . Though there was nothing like assumption or 
pretension in his manner, there was a tone of superi- 
ority, which he justified by a great store of knowledge, 
a clear and impressive style, and a constant readiness to 
discuss any question that arose." 

The Reformers determined to appeal to the country. 
Great excitement ensued. One member declared that 
the E-eform Bill would tear the crown from the head of 
the sovereign. Peel forgot his usual calmness and self- 
possession, and in the midst of cheers and groans and 
cries of order, said, "^ I will tell you what you are about 
to establish by a reformed Parliament. If the bill pro- 
posed by ministers be carried, it will introduce the very 
worst and vilest species of despotism, — the despotism 
of demagogues, the despotism of journalism, — that des- 
potism which has brought neighboring countries, once 
happy and flourishing, to the very brink of ruin and 
despair." 

William IV. dissolved Parliament in person. Both 
parties were active, those for and against reform. 
Before the general elections, in fifteen days. Peel spoke 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 43 

forty-eight times, Sir Charles Wetherell fifty-eight times, 
and others as many, but the Reformers won a majority. 

Lord John Russell introduced his new bill June 24. 
On the third meeting the battle was vehement. "Peel," 
says Greville in his Memoirs, "closed the debate on 
Thursday night with a very fine speech, the best (one of 
his opponents told me, and it is no use asking the opin- 
ion of friends if a candid opponent is to be found) he 
had ever made, not only on that subject, but on any 
other : he cut Macaulay to ribbons. Macaulay is very 
brilliant, but his speeches are harangues, and never 
replies ; whereas Peel's long experience and real talent 
for debate give him a great advantage in the power of 
reply, which he eminently possesses." The bill passed 
the House of Commons by 109, but was rejected by the 
House of Lords by 41. 

At once the country seemed on the verge of revolu- 
tion. Riots took place in Nottingham, Bristol, and other 
towns. In Bristol, the mob burned the Mansion House, 
in which Sir Charles Wetherell had taken refuge, beat 
down the doors of the prisons and released the prisoners, 
and at one time had forty-two dwellings and warehouses 
all in flames. The windows of the Duke of Wellington 
were broken, and the cry everywhere was, "The bill, 
the whole bill, and nothing but the bill." In Notting- 
ham, the ancient castle, once a royal residence, but at 
this time owned by the Duke of Newcastle, was sacked 
and burned. 

In the midst of all this turmoil, cholera broke out. 
Some of the clergy opposed to reform declared that 
"this mysterious visitation was a judgment of Provi- 
dence on the nation for meddling with institutions con- 
secrated by religious associations and convictions." 



44 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

The rioters were arrested, and twenty-one were capi- 
tally convicted, for this "meddling with institutions 
consecrated by religious associations." 

Parliament met again in December, 1831, and the bill 
passed the House of Commons in the following March. 
But the House of Lords stood out against the measure. 
. Great meetings were held at Birmingham and else- 
where, with 150,000 persons in attendance. These meet- 
ings declared that if the Lords threw out the bill, there 
was reason to expect "that the ultimate consequence 
might be the utter extinction of the privileged orders." 
It seemed necessary for King William to create enough 
new peers to carry the bill. This Lord Grey, then Prime 
Minister, and Lord Brougham urged him to do. He 
refused, and the ministers resigned. William's carriage 
was now mobbed in the streets whenever it appeared. 

Peel saw, as he had seen in the time of Catholic 
Emancipation, that reform must come, or civil war would 
be the result, but Wellington did not see it. Macaulay 
twitted Peel with his forced conversions ; but Peel was 
man enough to do what was best for his country, even if 
not in accordance with his own wishes. He ceased to 
oppose the measure, and said that reform was inevitable. 
" I have been uniformly opposed to reform on principle," 
he once said to Brougham, " because I was unwilling to 
open a door which I saw no prospect of being able to 
close." The door was opened wider still by Disraeli in 
the Eeform Bill of 1867, and by Gladstone in the Reform 
Bill of 1885, and will probably never be closed again. 

William IV. reluctantly consented to the creation of 
new peers ; this was finally avoided, through the King's 
request of the opposition to oppose no more. The bill 
passed the House of Lords by 106 to 22. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 45 

The Reform Bill of 1832 disfranchised fifty-six nomi- 
nation boroughs, and took away one member from many 
others, leaving vacant one hundred and forty-three seats. 
It enfranchised many counties, nineteen large towns, — 
such as Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, including 
the metropolitan districts. Tenants-at-will paying fifty 
pounds a year were enfranchised, and in the towns a ten- 
pound household franchise was established. 

Peel accepted the situation, but with the Duke deter- 
mined to watch the lengths to which the Reformed Par- 
liament might go. Wellington said to Greville : " I mean 
to support the government — support them in every way. 
The first thing I have to look to is to keep my house 
over my head, and the alternative is between this gov- 
ernment and none at all." No disturbances resulted 
from the reform in the franchise, which proved an 
eminently wise measure. During the next two years 
Parliament spent its time in passing coercion bills for 
Ireland, reforming the Irish church, abolishing slavery 
in the colonies, and passing the Poor Law Amendment 
Act. Peel spoke against the motion of Grote, the his- 
torian, on voting by ballot, by which each voter might 
deposit his paper in a box with the names of the candi- 
dates unseen ; a measure not carried till nearly forty 
years later, by William Edward Forster. 

Mr. Peel said, " If we are to admit vote by ballot, it 
will only be the prelude to further demands ; and there 
is nothing to hinder any member from coming forward 
the following day to ask us to adopt universal suffrage, 
or any other plan which may be popular. There is no 
system which has not plausible arguments in favor of 
its adoption, and certainly the theoretical arguments in 
favor of universal suffrage are at least as strong as those 
in favor of the ballot. 



46 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

" There are arguments in favor of extending the 
franchise to women, to which it would be no easy 
matter to find any logical answer. Other and more 
important duties are intrusted to women ; women are 
allowed to hold property, to vote on many occasions in 
right of that property — nay, a woman may inherit the 
throne, and perform all the functions of the first office 
of the state ; why should they not vote for a member of 
Parliament ? " 

In the autumn of 1834, Peel took his wife and daughter 
Julia to Italy for the winter. But he was summoned 
home by the King to become Prime Minister. Sir 
Eobert and Lady Peel left Pome November 26, and 
reached Dover December 8, having travelled from Pome 
to Calais by carriage. The Duke of Wellington became 
Foreign Secretary in the Peel ministry, and William 
Ewart Gladstone Under Secretary for the colonies. 

Peel was now forty-six years of age. He held office 
for only a few months. William IV. died June 20, 1837, 
and his niece Victoria came to the throne at the age of 
eighteen. England rejoiced, and has had occasion to 
rejoice ever since that a good woman rules the nation. 
The darkness of the Georgian era has helped to make 
the Victorian era even more luminous. 

In 1839 the Queen asked Peel to be Prime Minister. 
The ladies of her Majesty's household were all Whigs. 
Peel felt that they miglit have undue influence upon his 
administrPttion, and asked, as a condition of his accept- 
ance, that the more prominent of them be replaced by 
ladies on the Tory side. To this the Queen would not 
consent. The matter was brought before Parliament. 

O'Connell, as usual on the side opposed to Peel, took 
the part of " the young creature, — that creature of only 



SIR 110 BEET PEEL. 47 

nineteen, as pure as she is exalted. . . . Those excellent 
women, who had been so long attached to her, who had 
nursed and tended to her wants in her childhood, 
who had watched over her in her sickness, w^hose eyes 
beamed with delight as they saw her increasing daily in 
beauty and in loveliness, — when they were threatened 
to be forced away from her, her heart told her that she 
could as well part with that heart itself as with those 
whom it held so dear." Peel could not be moved from 
the position he had taken, and did not become Prime 
Minister. 

In 1840 the Queen announced her approaching mar- 
riage to Prince Albert. The ministers proposed to 
settle upon him £50,000 a year, as had been given in 
other cases. It was a time of great commercial depres- 
sion, and Peel seconded a motion to reduce the amount 
to £30,000. This did not mar the good feeling between 
the Queen and Sir Robert, for three years later she and 
Prince Albert visited Peel at Drayton Manor. The 
Prince and Sir Eobert became close friends, because 
both were cultivated, and both devoted to their country. 

Peel ao^ain became Prime Minister in 1841. As had 
been previously arranged, three Whig ladies, the Duch- 
ess of Bedford, the Duchess of Sutherland, and Lady 
Normandy, resigned. Peel had many important mat- 
ters at hand. The Irish question was ever at the 
front. Several measures in aid of Ireland were passed 
by the Commons and defeated by the Lords. Mr. Shaw 
Lefevre, in his " Peel and O'Connell," says : " The House 
of Lords has been leavened and prejudiced on Irish 
questions by a number of peers from Ireland, represent- 
ing only one and the smallest section of the people ; and 
only one interest, that of landlords, — a body without 



48 IS IB EGBERT PEEL. 

any popular sympathies, and the determined opponent 
of every measure of justice to their country." 

With all industries crippled, famine swept the coun- 
try again and again. Tithes had long been a subject of 
constant dissension, and, indeed, of bloodshed. Both 
Catholics and Presbyterians hated them, because col- 
lected for the Established Church ; the tax being levied 
on corn, potatoes, flax, and meadow. 

In "Two Centuries of Irish History," Dr. Sullivan 
says: "When the tenant, from one cause or another, 
Avas unable to pay the tithe, the tithe-farmer gave him 
credit often at high interest, and if he failed to pay the 
interest it was added to the principal; and ultimately 
his goods were perhaps distrained, even to his miserable 
furniture. If a cottier or farmer, or his half-naked 
wife or children, should inadvertently dig two or three 
beds of their early potatoes without leaving the tithe or 
tenth spade undug, the tithe-farmers immediately threat- 
ened to sue him for subtraction of tithe, to avoid which 
they were frequently obliged to take their tithes at his 
valuation." 

Finally societies were formed to resist the payment 
of tithes. O'Connell was the brilliant leader. Eiots 
ensued ; men were arrested, but it was impossible to 
convict. Sydney Smith thought about one million lives 
had been sacrificed in Ireland on account of the tithe 
system. 

In 1833 the ari^ars of tithes amounted to over a mil- 
lion pounds. This year alone it cost England £26,000 
to collect £12,000 worth of tithes. In 1838 the "Irish 
Tithes' Commutation Act" was passed, and a land tax 
substituted.. A million pounds were given to the tithe- 
owners for arrears. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 49 

O'Coiinell had been working for years in Ireland to 
bring about a repeal of the union. He had announced 
that 1843 should be known henceforward as the year of 
Repeal. He had secured seats in Parliament for his 
sons, and many other friends pledged to repeal. He 
held immense meetings all over Ireland, at which people 
gathered to listen to the words of the great Liberator, as 
he was called. At Tara, when over a quarter of a mil- 
lion people were assembled, O'Connell said : " Before 
twelve months more, the Parliament will be in College 
Green. ... If, at the present moment, the Irish Parlia- 
ment was in existence, even as it stood in 1800, is there 
a coward amongst you — is there a wretch amongst you 
so despicable, that he would not die rather than allow 
the union to pass ? . . . The Irish Parliament will then 
assemble, and I defy all the generals, old and young, and 
all the old women in pantaloons — nay, I defy all the 
chivalry of the earth, to take away that Parliament from 
us again. Give me three million of repealers, and I will 
soon have them. . . . Remember, I pronounce the union 
to be null, to be obeyed as an injustice ; must be obe3i'ed 
where it is supported by law, until we have the royal 
authority to set the matter right, and substitute our own 
Parliament." 

A mass meeting was arranged at Clontarf, near Dublin, 
on Sunday, October 8. On the very morning of that 
day, government issued a proclamation, forbidding the 
people to assemble. The "Young Ireland" party hoped 
O'Connell would resort to arms. Thousands were ready 
to fight. England feared that O'Connell meant rebellion, 
but he had hoped to gain the Repeal just as Catholic 
Emancipation had been gained, by constitutional methods 
only. He therefore prevailed upon the people not to 



60 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

attend the meeting, against the will of the government ; 
and showed to the world that much as he loved Ireland, 
he loved peace even more. O'Connell was arrested, sen- 
tenced to a year's imprisonment, and to pay two thousand 
pounds. This sentence was reversed by the House of 
Lords on a technical error. 

O'Connell became melancholy, after the failure of his 
plans ; his dejection increased, it is said, by his hopeless 
love for a young girl who would not consent to become 
his wife. He desired to die at Rome, and hurried to 
Italy. His strength failed when he reached Genoa, 
where he died May 15, 1847. 

Peel did much for education. The annual grant for 
elementary education in England was increased from 
thirty thousand pounds to one hundred thousand pounds 
annually. He raised the annual grant to Maynooth 
College, a Roman Catholic institution in Ireland, at 
which most of the priests were educated, from nine 
thousand to twenty-six thousand pounds, and proposed 
to give thirty thousand pounds for the erection of new 
buildings. 

This gift. to the Romanists raised a storm in England. 
Great meetings were held in opposition ; but the quiet 
yet strong-willed Peel carried out the measure which he 
considered fair and just. This grant was repealed when 
Gladstone's government disestablished the Irish Church, 
and Romanists were left free to support their own insti- 
tutions. 

Another measure of Peel's called forth great censure. 
He used £100,000 to aid in founding undenominational 
colleges in Belfast, Cork, and Gal way, affiliated to a 
new university, to be called the " Queen's University in 
Ireland." Here instruction was given in secular knowl- 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 61 

edge. The Pope and the Irish bishops condemned the 
colleges as "godless." 

Peel passed his Bank Charter Act in 1845, a measure 
devised largely by Lord Overstone. " The amount of 
security upon which the bank may issue notes is to be 
£14,000,000. Above that sum the notes must correspond 
to the amount of bullion, and a full statement of the 
accounts of the bank is to be given week by week to 
the government for publication." 

Peel and Lord Aberdeen, his Foreign Secretary, 
settled the unfortunate disputes between England and 
the United States over boundary lines. Lord Ashbur- 
ton, formerly Mr. Baring, who had married an American 
lady, was sent to Washington, and by his tact and intel- 
ligence helped to settle the disagreement between Canada 
and Maine as to boundary. 

In 1846 the Oregon Treaty settled the question of the 
ownership of the mouth of the Columbia River, for a 
time at least, thus happily averting a war between the 
two nations. The question was decided in 1871 by the 
Emperor of Germany, to whom it was referred for 
arbitration. 

While Peel was steering the ship of state steadily and 
successfully, great matters were coming up for decision, 
as must always be the case among a thinking people. 
Lord Ashley, afterwards Shaftesbury, was pushing ear- 
nestly his measures for the factory operatives. Peel be- 
lieved that a limitation of the day to ten hours' labor 
would prevent manufacturers from competing with those 
of other countries, and in the end work harm to the 
operatives themselves by lowering wages. He did not 
live to see how labor was blessed later on by such 
decrease of toil; he perhaps knew less about the lives 



52 SIR ROBERT PEEL. . 

of workingmen than his father, who had earned his 
millions for him. 

John Bright and Cobden were stirring England by 
their eloquent speeches on Free Trade. Disraeli was 
talking Protection with all his satire and brilliancy. 
Former prohibitions of corn or grain had caused riots, 
and burnings, and consequent hangings. The Hon. 
Charles Pelham Villiers, a member of the aristocracy, a 
gifted and true man, had moved annually, for years, the 
abolition of the Corn Laws. 

In 1842 Peel had carried his sliding-scale with a duty 
of twenty shillings when the price of corn was worth 
fifty-one shillings, decreasing to twelve shillings duty 
when corn or wheat was worth sixty shillings, and one 
shilling duty when grain was worth seventy-three shil- 
lings. The tariff battle was fought for years ; some per- 
sons favoring absolute repeal, some a fixed duty, and 
others a sliding-scale. 

" In the mean time," says Dr. Taylor, " the increasing 
distress and discontent of the agricultural laborers, for 
whose benefit the Corn Laws were said to have been 
established, practically refuted one of the strongest argu- 
ments on which the Protectionists relied. At a meeting 
of laborers, this favorite excuse for the maintenance of 
monopoly was forever overthrown by a poor peasant 
whose jaded form, hollow cheeks, and attenuated limbs 
were irrefutable proofs of the extremity of his sufferings : 
in a hollow, piercing voice he exclaimed, ' I be protected, 
and I be starving ! ' " 

Men with seven and eight children could earn at farm 
labor but seven shillings per week. One of the laborers 
said, " The children would jump across the house if they 
saw a couple of potatoes, and quarrel which should have 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 53 

them. . . . When he came home at night, and found them 
crying for food, and he had none to give them, it almost 
drove him- mad." 

In Ireland, the potato rot, from the wet weather, had 
brought on a famine. Of her eight million population, 
about one-half depended upon the potatoes for food. " In 
the southern and western provinces," says McCarthy, 
" a large proportion of the peasantry actually lived on 
the potato, and the potato alone. In these districts 
whole generations grew up, lived, married, and passed 
away, without having ever tasted flesh-meat." 

The census reports for 1841 showed that in the rural 
districts above forty-three per cent, and in the urban dis- 
tricts above thirty-six per cent, of the families lived in 
mud cabins having only one room. 

When the potatoes were destroyed, famine came into 
these hovels. "The people," says Mr. Stuart Trench, 
in his " Eealities of Irish Life," " died on the roads, 
and they died on the fields ; they died on the mountains, 
and they died in the glens ; they died at the relief 
works, and they died in their houses, so that little streets 
or villages were left almost without an inhabitant ; and 
at last some few, despairing of help in the country, 
crawled into the town, and died at the doors of residents 
and outside the Union walls. Some were buried under- 
ground, and some were left unburied on the mountains 
where they died, there being no one able to bury them." 

In a few years the population of Ireland fell from 
eight millions to five. The famine and its consequent 
fevers carried off a million and a half. Food was too 
dear for the poor, and a cry went up from the desolate 
homes that the protective duties be removed, that bread 
might be cheap. 



54 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

Sir Robert had come into power in 1841, pledged to 
protection, but he could not see the condition of affairs 
and remain unmoved. John Bright was saying before 
the crowded and enthusiastic audiences that gathered all 
over England : " Sir Eobert Peel knows well enough 
what is wanted. . . . He knows our principles, and what 
would result from the practice, just as well as we know. 
He has not been for nearly forty years in public life — 
hearing everything, reading everything, and seeing al- 
most everything — without having come to a conclusion, 
that in this country of 27,000,000 people, and with an 
increase of 1,500,000 since he came into power in 1841, 
that a law that shuts out the supply of food which the 
world would give to this population, cannot be main- 
tained ; and that, were his government ten times as strong 
as it is, it must yield before the imperious and irresistible 
necessity which is every day gaining upon it. . . . His 
position gives enormous power. No minister in this 
country ever had a greater power than he has ; and 
where there is enormous power, there must always be a 
corresponding responsibility." 

Macaulay spoke eloquently in favor of the repeal of 
the Corn Laws. Lord John Kussell, Avho succeeded Peel 
as prime minister, was also strongly in favor of repeal. 

Sir Robert had the farsightedness and judgment to 
know that the hour had come. He told his Cabinet that 
the Corn Laws must be modified or suspended. They 
could not agree with him ; and Peel, knowing now that 
for the ministry to oppose repeal, would bring strife and 
disorder to England, tendered his resignation to the 
Queen. 

Lord John Russell tried to form a Cabinet, and failed, 
and the Queen sent for Peel to come to Windsor. She 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 55 

said : " So far from taking leave of you, Sir Robert, I 
must require you to withdraw your resignation, and to 
remain in my service." 

The Queen opened the new session of Parliament in 
person, Jan. 22, 1846. She commended the ministry for 
its " repeal of prohibitory and its relaxation of protecting 
duties. : . . I recommend you," she said, "to take into 
early consideration, whether the principles on which you 
have acted may not with advantage be yet more exten- 
sively applied, and whether it may not be in your power, 
after a careful review of the existing duties upon many 
articles, the produce or manufacture of other countries, 
to make such further reductions and remissions as may 
tend to insure the continuance of the great benefits to 
which I have adverted, and, by enlarging our commercial 
intercourse, to strengthen the bonds of amity with 
foreign powers." 

Sir Robert then stated, in an able speech, his plan for 
the gradual repeal of the Corn Laws. With a courage 
worthy of the man, he said, " I will not stand at the 
helm during such tempestuous nights as I have seen, if 
this vessel be not allowed to pursue fairly the course 
which I think she ought to take. I will not, sir, under- 
take to direct the course of this vessel by the observations 
which have been taken in 1842. I will reserve to my- 
self the marking out of that course ; and I must, for the 
public interest, claim for myself the unfettered power of 
judging of those measures w^hich I conceive will be 
better for the country to propose. Sir, I do not wish 
to be the minister of England ; but while I have the 
high honor of holding that office, I am determined to 
hold it by no servile tenure." 

The Protectionists, led by Disraeli, were angered be- 



56 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

yond measure. Disraeli outdid himself in sarcasm and 
reprobation. " Well," he said, " do we remember on this 
side of the House — perhaps not without a blush — well 
do we remember the efforts which we made to raise him 
to the bench on which he now sits. Who does not re- 
member the ^sacred cause of protection' — the cause 
for which sovereigns were thwarted, parliaments dis- 
solved, and a nation taken in ! ... I care not what may 
be the position of a man who never originates an idea, 
a watcher of the atmosphere, a man who, as he says, takes 
his observations, and when he finds the wind in a cer- 
tain quarter, trims to suit it. Such a person may be a 
powerful minister, but he is no more a great statesman, 
than the man who gets up behind a carriage is a great 
whip." 

The fury of debate and invective went on night after 
night. Finally, May 15, the bill came to its third reading. 
"The beaten side," says Mr. Montague, "gave loose to 
all their passion. They made the roof ring with cheers 
when Disraeli reminded the House how the right honora- 
ble gentleman had ever traded on the ideas of others, 
described him as a burglar of others' intellect, and termed 
his life one great appropriation clause. When Peel rose 
to speak, they hooted and screamed with fury. When 
he vindicated himself, and spoke of honor and conscience, 
they replied with shouts of derision, and gestures of 
contempt. For a minute or more Peel had to stop, and 
for the first time in his life seemed to lose his self-pos- 
session. It seemed as though he were about to burst 
into tears ; but he rallied and went on. Alas for the 
proud, sensitive man ! " 

The bill passed the House at four o'clock on the morn- 
ing of May 16, by a majority of ninety-eight, and went i*p 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 57 

to the Lords, where Wellington secured its passage. 
The old hero bluntly said, " My only object in public 
life is to support Sir Eobert Peel's administration of the 
government for the Queen. A good government for the 
country is more important than Corn Laws or any other 
consideration ; and as long as Sir Kobert Peel possesses 
the confidence of the Queen, and of the public, and he 
has the strength to perform his duties, his administra- 
tion of the government must be supported." 

Sir Robert Peel's government fell a few weeks later, 
on a Coercion Bill for Ireland. The peasants in that 
country seemed to have become desperate through want 
and disease, and saw no hope for the future. Crime had 
so increased, that a Bill for the Protection of Life seemed 
a necessity. The Protectionists joined with the Whigs 
in revenge on Peel, and his policy was defeated. 

On Peel's resignation, June 29, 1846, he spoke elo- 
quently, reviewing his ministerial career. Concerning 
the repeal of the Corn Laws, he said : " The name which 
ought to be, and will be, associated with the success of 
those measures, is the name of one, who, acting, I be- 
lieve, from pure and disinterested motives, has, with 
untiring energy, made appeals to our reason, and has 
enforced those appeals with an eloquence the more to 
be admired because it was unaffected and unadorned. 
The name which ought to be chiefly associated with the 
success of these measures is the name of Eichard 
Cobden." 

Peel closed with these manly yet pathetic words : " In 
relinquishing power, I shall leave a name severely cen- 
sured, I fear, by many who, on public grounds, deeply 
regret the severance of party ties, — deeply regret that 
severai)ce, not from interested or personal motives, but 



58 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

from the lirin conviction that fidelity to party engage- 
ments — the existence and maintenance of a great party 
— constitutes a powerful instrument of government. 

" I shall surrender power, severely censured, also, by 
others who, from no interested motives, adhere to the 
principle of protection, considering the maintenance of 
it to be essential to the welfare and interests of the 
country. I shall leave a name execrated by every 
monopolist, who, from less honorable motives, clamors 
for protection because it conduces to his own individual 
benefit ; but it may be that I shall leave a name, some- 
times remembered with expressions of good-will, in the 
abodes of those whose lot it is to labor, and to earn their 
daily bread by the sweat of their brow, when they shall 
recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and un- 
taxed food, — the sweeter, because it is no longer leav- 
ened by a sense of injustice." 

In the bitterest party strife. Peel had the approval 
of his conscience, and was therefore not disquieted. 
When blamed because, with his great power, he had 
not " educated his party " up to the great principles of 
Free Trade, as Disraeli said, years later , that he had 
done on Eeform, Peel replied that he had not wished to 
broach the subject to the House of Commons, because 
some would have protested, and some would have organ- 
ized opposition. " I should have appeared to be flying 
in the face of a whole party, and contumaciously disre- 
garding their opinion and advice, after I had professed 
to consult them ; but (what is of infinitely more im- 
portance) I should have failed in carrying the repeal of 
the Corn Loavs. Now, I was resolved not to fail. I 
did not fail ; and if I had to fight the battle over again, 
I weuld fight it in the same way." 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 59 

Peel knew, and was teaching a broader constituency 
than that in England merely, a lesson that the New 
World is learning, that there is something above party : 
principle, and the permanent good of one's country. 

For the next four years, Peel enjoyed some measure 
of rest and repose. He wrote to a friend that he and 
Lady Peel, "in the loveliest weather, were feasting on 
solitude and repose, and I have every disposition to for- 
give my enemies for having conferred upon me the 
blessing of the loss of power.'* 

He visited Scotland, and received the freedom of the 
city of Aberdeen. He had been chosen Lord Rector 
of Glasgow University some years before this. When 
Guizot took refuge in England after the revolution of 
1848, Peel entertained him at Drayton Manor, as he did 
also Louis Philippe. Peel still took the deepest interest 
in affairs of state. June 29, 1850, he made his last 
speech in the House of Commons, on the Don Pacitico 
matter, which gave Palmerston his first prominence. 
The next day he attended a meeting of the Commis- 
sioners, who were arranging for the great Industrial 
Exhibition of 1851. 

A little before five o'clock he went for a ride on 
horseback, and going up Constitution Hill, stopped for a 
moment to speak with Miss Ellis, daughter of Lady 
Dover, also on horseback. Peel's horse suddenly shied, 
threw off his rider, and fell upon him, his knees on 
Peel's shoulders. Two men saw the accident, and rushed 
to his aid. Peel, when asked if he was hurt, replied, 
"Very much," and became unconscious. He was taken 
home, and laid on a sofa in his dining-room, from which 
it was found impossible to remove him. 

For three days he lingered in dreadful pain. Great. 



60 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

crowds were constantly about the house, the poor and 
the rich, all anxious to learn the probable results. On 
Tuesday afternoon, the third day, when the wife and 
children came in. Peel recognized them, and, holding out 
his hand, murmured, " God bless you." His wife broke 
down, and had to be carried out. At eleven o'clock 
death came. 

It was desired to bury the great statesman with pub- 
lic honors in Westminster Abbey, but he had directed in 
his will that he should be buried without ostentation, in 
Drayton Church, beside his parents. 

The Queen desired to bestow upon Lady Peel the 
rank of viscountess, but she was unwilling to accept the 
honor. Peel had expressed in his will the hope that no 
one of his family would accept any title or reward for 
services which he might have rendered to his country. 

A monument was erected to Peel in Westminster 
Abbey, and others in various cities all over the kingdom, 
given by the rich, and by the penny subscriptions of 
working-men. 

Of Peel's seven children, five sons and two daughters, 
Robert, the eldest, succeeded to the baronetcy, and the 
representation of the borough of Tamworth, held by his 
father. Frederick was member for Leominster ; Wil- 
liam entered the navy ; John Ployd, the army ; Arthur 
Wellesley was elected to the speakership of the House 
of Commons in 1884 ; Julia married Lord Villiers ; Eliza, 
the Hon. Prancis Stonor. Lady Peel survived her 
husband nine years, and was buried beside him. Of 
Peel's home life, Sir Lawrence Peel says, "English 
domestic life never showed itself elsewhere in a calmer 
or a purer form." 

Of his public life, the Duke of Wellington said in 



SIR ROBERT PEEL. 61 

the House of Lords, "I never knew a man in whose 
truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in 
whom I saw a more invariable desire to promote the 
public service. In the whole course of my communica- 
tion with him, I never knew an instance in which he did 
not show the strongest attachment to truth ; and I never 
saw, in the Avhole course of my life, the smallest reason 
for suspecting that he stated anything which he did not 
firmly believe to be the fact." 

Peel was by nature a conservative, but he was brave 
enough and broad-minded enough to change his opinions 
and methods when reason convinced, or justice demanded 
it. He gave Catholic Emancipation ; he accepted Par- 
liamentary Reform ; he proposed the Eepeal of the Corn 
Laws. Country was to him above any man or any party. 
He was calm, fair, earnest, honest, and self-governed. 



LORD PALMERSTON. 



" ~[ riS society was infinitely agreeable to me," wrote 
J — L Lord Shaftesbury after his father-in-law, Lord 
Palmerston, died ; '^ and I admired every day more his 
patriotism, his simplicity of purpose, his indefatigable 
spirit of labor, his unfailing good humor, his kindness 
of heart, and his prompt, tender, and active considera- 
tion for others in the midst of his heaviest toils and 
anxieties." 

There was a great contrast between the two great 
men, Shaftesbury and Palmerston. One lived to serve 
humanity ; the other lived to serve England. One lived 
to make the world more humane, more tender, more 
Christian ; the other lived to make England the leader 
in commerce and in constitutional government, power- 
ful in peace and unconquerable in war. Palmerston did 
not live for himself ; he lived for his country. And this 
cannot be said of all statesmen. 

Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, was born 
October 20, 1784, at Broadlands, Hants, his father's 
English seat. An ancestor. Sir William Temple, had 
settled in Ireland in the time of Queen Elizabeth. His 
son, John Temple, was Master of the Eolls in Ireland, 
and an author. Of his children, William became a 

statesman and man of letters, and John, the great-great- 

62 




LORD PALMERSTON. 



LORD PALMFAISTON, 63 

grandfather of Lord Palmerston, became attorney-gen- 
eral and speaker of the Irish House of Commons. 

Lord Palmerston's father, the second viscount, sat for 
several years in the English Parliament. His first wife 
had no children. His second wife, Mary Mee, was the 
mother of four, two sons and two daughters ; Henry 
John, Lord Palmerston, being the eldest. 

The father was a man of literary and artistic tastes, 
and very fond of society ; the mother, an unselfish, even- 
tempered woman, with strong common-sense. The boy 
seems to have inherited his. father's buoyant nature and 
passion for social life, with his mother's sterling sense 
and strength of character. 

The family made several visits to Italy, taking Henry 
John, or Harry as he was called, with them. Here he 
learned the Italian language, which became most useful 
to him in after life. When Harry Temple was an old 
man and had become the renowned Lord Palmerston, 
Victor Emmanuel II. was made a Knight of the Garter 
at Windsor Castle by the Queen. She wished to have 
the King of Italy understand the oath he was about to 
take, so Palmerston made a translation into Italian and 
handed it to the King. The great Italian statesman, 
Cavour, was so interested in the incident that he asked 
for the paper written by Palmerston, and always pre- 
served it as an historical relic. In Bologna, Harry became 
the friend of Francis George Hare, called later, from his 
great knowledge, "a monster of learning.'' He wrote 
to Harry when the latter was at Harrow at school : " I 
hope you take no part in those vices which are common 
to a public school, such as I suppose Harrow, as swearing 
and getting drunk ; but I imagine the son of a gentle- 
man so well taught cannot partake in things like these. 



64 LOBD PALMERSTON. 

... I still persist in my opinion of never marrying, and 
I suppose you think the same, as you must have read as 
well as myself of the many faults and vices of women." 

The lad of fourteen, Harry Temple, wrote back that he 
was just recovering from the measles ; that he had begun 
to read Homer's Iliad; that he was "doing Csesar, 
Terence, Ovid, Greek Testament, and a collection of 
Greek epigrams ; " that " I am perfectly of youi' opinion 
concerning drinking and swearing, which, though fashion- 
able at present, I think extremely ungentlemanlike. I 
have begun to learn Spanish, and have also begun to 
read ''Don Quixote' in the original, which I can assure 
you gave me no small pleasure. ... I cannot agree with 
you about marriage, though I should he by no means pre- 
cipitate about liny clioieeP 

As Lord Palmerston did not marry until he was fifty- 
five, he was " by no means precipitate about his choice." 

Young Hare waited till he was past fort}^, and married 
" Anne, eldest daughter of Sir John Dean Paul, and had 
with her twenty thousand pounds." He died in Sicily, 
twelve years later. Walter Savage Laudor speaks of 
him as one 

" Who held mute the joyous and the wise 
With wit and eloquence; whose tomb, afar 
From all his friends and all his countrymen, 
Saddens the light Palermo." 

When Harry was sixteen he left Harrow, and went to 
Edinburgh University, where for three years he boarded 
with the famous Dugald Stewart, and attended his 
lectures on political economy and moral philosophy, 
his parents paying four hundred pounds a year for these 
privileges. 

" In these three years," said Lord Palmerston in later 



LOBB PALMEUSTON. 65 

life, " I laid the foundation for whatever useful knowl- 
edge and habits of mind I possess/' 

Professor Dugald Stewart was evidently fond of his 
pupil, for he wrote to a friend : " In point of temper and 
conduct he is everything his friends could wish. Indeed, 
I cannot say that I have ever seen a more faultless char- 
acter at his time of life, or one possessed of more amia- 
ble dispositions. His talents are uncommonly good, and 
he does them all possible justice by assiduous appli- 
cation." 

Lord Minto Avrote to Harry's mother : " Harry is as 
charming and perfect as he ought to be ; I do declare I 
never saw anything more delightful. On this subject I 
do not speak on my own judgment alone. I have sought 
opportunities of conversing with Mr. and also with Mrs. 
Stewart on the subject, and they have made to me the 
report which you have already heard from others, that 
he is the only young man they ever knew in whom it is 
impossible to find any fault. Diligence, capacity, total 
freedom from vice of every sort, gentle and kind dispo- 
sition, cheerfulness, pleasantness, and perfect sweetness, 
are in the catalogue of properties by which Ave may 
advertise him if he should be lost." 

Evidently riches, and the fact that he was a lord, had 
not spoiled young Harry Temple. His good sense kept 
him from feeling above others, and his true manhood 
kept him from extravagance and bad companions. 

When Harry was nineteen he entered St. John's 
College, Cambridge. Here his scholarship was so excel- 
lent and his conduct so exemplary that his private tutor, 
Dr. Outram, advised him to attempt to enter Parliament 
for Cambridge whenever there was a vacancy. 

Before leaving Edinburgh, in 1802, Viscount Palmer- 



66 LOBD PALMERSTON. 

ston had died, leaving his eldest son, Harry, the titles and 
estates. This death was a severe blow to Harry, and 
Lord Minto wrote his wife that young Temple had be- 
come ^^ entirely silent." Three years later, in 1805, a 
still heavier sorrow came, in the death of his mother. 

Harry, now Lord Palmerston, wrote to his friend, the 
Right Hon. Lawrence Sullivan, who afterwards married 
his second sister, Elizabeth : " Consolation is impossible ; 
there are losses which nothing can repair ; and griefs 
which time may fix and mellow, but never can obliterate. 
After the example, however, of fortitude and resignation 
set us by a being who was the model of every human 
excellence, it would be criminal in us not to imitate 
the resignation as well as every other perfection of her 
character. 

" She was conscious, it is true, that she was but pass- 
ing to that happiness which her virtues had secured her ; 
and beheld with calmness and composure an event which, 
to the generality of mankind, comes clad with all the 
terrors of doubt." 

A noble tribute to a mother from a noble son ! 

The following year, in January, 1806, Lord Palmer- 
ston, just twenty-one, and not yet a graduate, stood 
for Cambridge University, the death of the younger Pitt 
having made a vacancy. He was defeated, though 
he said, truly, " It was an honor, however, to have been 
supported at all, and I was well satisfied with my fight." 

The same year he and Lord Pitz Harris Avere elected for 
Horsham, but were unseated on petition, and thought 
themselves lucky, he says in his brief autobiography, 
" as in a short time came the change of government, and 
the dissolution in May, 1807; and we rejoiced in our 
good fortune at not having paid five thousand pounds 



LORD PALMEBSTON. 67 

(which would have been its price) for a three-months 
seat." 

He stood again for Cambridge, and failed, but later 
entered the House of Commons from Newport, in the 
Isle of Wight. For sixty years, till his death, he 
remained a member of Parliament. 

He had just before this been nominated a Lord of the 
Admiralty, through the influence of his guardian, Lord 
Malmesbury, who was an intimate friend of the Duke of 
Portland, First Lord of the Treasury. Lord Palmerston 
did not make a speech for some months in the House of 
Commons, and then it was upon the taking of Copenhagen 
by the English, to prevent its union with the French 
under Napoleon Bonaparte. He spoke for a half-hour, 
following a brilliant speech of Canning's, three hours 
long. The speech was composed with care, and portions 
of it committed to memory. It was evident that young 
Palmerston was considered a rising man on the Tory 
side. 

He was surprised, however, when in October of the 
following year, 1809, Mr. Perceval, the Prime Minister, 
offered him successively the Chancellorship of the Ex- 
chequer, a Lordship of the Treasury, and the Secretary- 
ship at War. He chose the latter, because he thought 
the other positions too hazardous for "so young and 
inexperienced a man," as he said of himself. 

He wrote to Lord Malmesbury : " Of course one's vanity 
and ambition would lead one to accept the brilliant offer 
iirst proposed ; but it is throwing for a great stake, and 
where much is to be gained, very much also may be lost. 
I have always thought it unfortunate for any one, and 
particularly a young man, to be put above his proper 
level, as he only rises to fall the lower." His good 



68 LORD PALMERSTON. 

sense had triumphed, as it did again and again through 
his long life. 

He remained Secretary at War, dealing with the 
accounts of the War Department (not Secretary for War, 
who was, properly speaking, the War Minister), for 
nearly twenty years. People began to wonder why he 
was not taking a more prominent part in affairs, as his 
youth gave promise. His intimate friends knew that he 
had ability, but the world thought of him usually as a 
polished man of society, rich and cultivated. " Cupid " he 
was called, from his dainty dress, and agreeable manners. 

"He passed," says Lord Shaftesbury, "so far as I 
could then judge, for a handy, clever man, who moved 
his estimates very well, appeared to care but little about 
public affairs in general, went a good deal into society, 
and never attracted any other remark than one of won- 
der, which I often heard, that he had been so long in 
the same office. 

" I doubt Avhether, at that time, he had much personal 
ambition. . . . His light and jaunty manner did him 
great disservice in his earlier years ; and I recollect 
perfectly well that, on our first acquaintance, I could see 
nothing in him of the statesman, but a good deal of the 
dandy. 

" This manner attended him throughout life in all the 
intercourse of society, even when engaged, heart and 
soul, in the most arduous and important matters. It was 
not assumed ; it was perfectly natural and easy ; for, 
whether at home or abroad, he seemed to be always 
disposed to take a light-humored view of all and every- 
thing that came under his notice. 

"But this was simply the efilorescence of certain 
great principles fermenting within. I do not hesitate to 



LOEB PALMERSTON. 69 

say that the two great objects of his heart — one, the insti- 
tution of a true and vigorous foreign policy, suited to the 
honor and position of the kingdom of England ; the other, 
the extinction of the slave-trade — were founded, not only 
on his personal love of freedom (which was intense), but 
on his deep and unalterable conviction that civil liberty 
all over the world would be good for the human race, and 
specially so for the British people." 

Lord Palmerston had been offered the secretaryship 
for Ireland in 1812, but he declined it. When Lord 
Liverpool was Prime Minister, he offered Palmerston 
the governor-generalship of India, or the post-office, with 
a seat in the House of Lords ; but both positions were 
also declined. Canning made him the offer of India, but 
Palmerston told him that he '^ happened not to have a 
family for whom he should be desirous of providing, and 
his health would not stand the climate of India." He 
also refused Canning's offer that he should be governor 
of Jamaica. 

Although Lord Brougham said, " Palmerston seldom 
troubles the House with his observations," yet he spoke 
well on some matters which deeply interested him. 
When Mr. Grattan, in 1813, brought forward the ques- 
tion of Catholic emancipation, Palmerston spoke elo- 
quently upon it. The bill, however, by which " Eoman 
Catholics are admitted by a new oath to Parliament, and 
almost all civil and political offices except those of 
Regent, Lord Chancellor, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 
are opened to them," was not passed till 1829, sixteen 
years later. 

Palmerston said in his speech before the House of 
Commons, "If it had unfortunately happened that by 
the circumstances of birth and education, a Nelson, a 



70 LORlD PALMEE8T0N. 

Wellington, a Burke, a Fox, or a Pitt had belonged to 
this class of the community, of what honors and what 
glory might not the page of British history have been 
deprived ? To what perils and calamities might not 
this country have been exposed ? The question is not 
whether we would have so large a part of the population 
Catholic or not. There they are, and we must deal 
with them as we can. 

" It is in vain to think that by any human pressure 
we can stop the spring which gushes from the earth. 
But it is for us to consider whether we will force it to 
spend its strength in secret and hidden courses, under- 
mining our fences and corrupting our soil, or whether 
we shall at once turn the current into the open and 
spacious channel of honorable and constitutional ambi- 
tion, converting it into the means of national prosperity 
and public wealth." 

He wrote to his brother, Hon. William Temple, of the 
British Legation at Berlin : " It is strange that in this 
enlightened age and enlightened country, people should 
be still debating whether it is wise to convert four or 
five millions of men from enemies to friends, and 
whether it is safe to give peace to Ireland." 

As a rule, Palmerston did not make long speeches, 
" unless when he purposely chose to be vague or unin- 
telligible," says one of the English journals ; "he always 
went straight to the mark, and talked in homely, vigor- 
ous, Saxon English. . , . He never, by any chance, 
wearied his audience. . . . He brought to bear upon 
every debate an unsurpassed tact, and a memory hardly 
rivalled. He could reply with telling effect, and point 
by point, to a lengthened attack from an enemy, without 
the use of a note or memorandum of any kind. When 



LOBB PALMETtSTON. 71 

argument failed, he employed broad, rough, English 
satire. He was never dull, he was never ineffective.'^ 

In 1818, on April 8, Lord Palmerston, as he was going 
up the stairs to the War Office, was shot at and slightly 
wounded by an insane lieutenant. On the trial the 
assailant was defended at Lord Palmerston's expense, 
and sent to an asylum. Jan. 1, 1829, Palmerston made 
an eloquent speech on the independence of Greece and 
the usurpations of Doni Miguel in Portugal. Greece had 
long been under the hated rule of the Turks, but in 
1821 the war for independence broke out. 

Mavrocordatos was appointed president. The aspi- 
rants for honors were numberless, and a civil war ensued 
in 1823 and 1824. Meantime the Greek fleet did great 
damage to the Turks. The Sultan sought the aid of 
Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, and his stepson Ibrahim 
landed on the Peloponnesus with a band of Arabs in 1824. 
Ibrahim conquered all before him, even Missolonghi, 
after a year's siege. 

The Greeks fought heroically, and their bravery filled 
Europe with praise. Lord Byron gave his life to their 
cause. The monarchs of Europe feared that the demo- 
cratic spirit of the French Pevolution was spreading, 
and that crowns would give place to republics. The 
people, however, rejoiced in the desire of the Greeks to 
be self-governing. 

The ravages of the Turks had been so great on the 
islands, as well as the mainland, that the three powers, 
England, France, and Russia, Avere compelled to send 
ships to cruise along the coasts of the Peloponnesus. As 
winter came on, the admirals of the fleets decided to 
anchor in the Bay of Navarino. This excited the hos- 
tility of the Turks, who fired upon them. A general 



72 LORD PALMERSTON. 

engagement resulted, and the Turkish fleet was annihi- 
lated October 20, 1827. 

The Duke of Wellington, "always a hard man," as his 
friend Lord Shaftesbury said, desired to leave the Greeks 
to themselves, but Palmerston urged that England might 
have saved much of bloodshed by taking a decided 
stand with Turkey and Egypt. 

The following year, 1828, Greece practically became 
independent under Capodistrias, but he was unpopular, 
and was assassinated in 1831. The next year Otho of 
Bavaria was made king, and the present limits of the 
kingdom were definitely settled by the protecting powers. 
Otho, unpopular, was obliged finally to leave his throne, 
and George, brother of the Princess of Wales, was made 
king. 

Portugal, also, was passing through stormy times. In 
1826 John VI. of Portugal had died, leaving by his will, 
his daughter, the Infanta Isabel Maria, as regent, to the 
great disappointment of his son Dom Miguel, who had 
hoped for that honor. The brother of Dom Miguel, 
Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, had abdicated all rights 
to the throne of Portugal in favor of his little daughter, 
Donna Maria da Gloria, only seven years old, on condi- 
tion that she should marry her ambitious uncle^ Dom 
Miguel, who had promised to accept a moderate parlia- 
mentary government. 

Dom Pedro, with too much faith in human nature, 
appointed Dom Miguel regent, who quickly declared 
himself king. His reign soon became a terror to all lib- 
eralists. The girl queen fled to England, where public 
opinion was in her favor, though Wellington and his 
Tory ministry seemed to approve of Dom Miguel. 



LORD PALMEBSTON. 73 

Palmerston, in his speech before the Plouse of Com- 
mons, spoke earnestly of England's professed non-inter- 
ference in the civil war of Portugal, while in reality she 
had favored the absolutism of Dom Miguel. The latter 
had sworn, in the presence of the British ambassador at 
Vienna, to maintain the liberal institutions granted by 
Dom Pedro to Portugal, and then had broken his word, 
with utter disregard of Great Britain. He had thrown 
British subjects into prison, English naval officers were 
beaten in the streets of Lisbon, and he had treated all 
remonstrances of England with contempt. 

'•I was under the gallery," says Bulwer, "when the 
speech on Portuguese affairs, which also touched toward 
the conclusion on foreign affairs generally, was spoken : 
it was not only composed with great care, both as to 
style and argument, but singularly well delivered, and 
in a tone which happily combined conversation with 
declamation. Lord Palmerston, in fact, never stood so 
high as an orator, until his famous Don Pacifico speech, 
as he stood at that moment. He was spoken of as the 
rival of Peel, and the preference was generally given to 
his style of eloquence." 

In 1831 Dom Pedro resigned the imperial crown of 
Brazil to his infant son, and Avent to London to join his 
daughter. Donna Maria da Gloria, and iight his brother, 
the usurper, Dom Miguel. The Liberal Government 
under Earl Grey was friendly, — he had made Palmerston 
Foreign Secretar}^, — and Dom Pedro raised a large loan. 
He arrived at Oporto in July, 1832, with seventy-five 
hundred men. 

Dom Miguel instantly laid siege to the city, and sick- 
ness without and want within made it a memorable 
event. Finally Dom Pedro conquered by the help of 



74 LORD PALMEBSTON. 

England and France, and Dom Miguel was banished 
from Portugal, never to return, under penalty of death. 
Queen Maria da Gloria died in 1853, and her husband, 
the king-consort, Dom Ferdinand II., assumed the re- 
gency until his eldest son, Dom Pedro Y., came of age. 

With Dom Miguel was banished Don Carlos, of Spain, 
the brother of Ferdinand VII., who tried to take the 
crown from his little niece^ Isabella. By the quadruple 
treaty signed April 22, 1834, by England, France, Spain, 
and Portugal, the four powers bound themselves to com- 
pel Carlos and Miguel to withdraw from the peninsula. 

Palmerston wrote his brother, Hon. William Temple, 
then at IsTaples, concerning the treaty: "I carried it 
through the Cabinet by a coup de main, taking them by 
surprise, and not leaving them time to make objection. 
... It has ended a war which might otherwise have lasted 
months. Miguel, when he surrendered, had with him 
from twelve to sixteen thousand men, with whom he 
could have marched into Spain, forty-five pieces of artil- 
lery, and twelve hundred cavalry. . . . But the moral 
effect of the treaty cowed them all, — generals, officers, 
men ; and that army surrendered without firing a shot." 

After Canning died. Lord Palmerston was called to 
the position of Foreign Secretary, that place of all others 
for which he was most eminently fitted. His hour had 
come, and thereafter, as Mr. Lloyd C. Sanders says in 
his concise Life of Palmerston, "under his auspices Eng- 
land entered upon a period of diplomatic activity which 
for its extent, duration, and success, has but few parallels 
in our history." 

Palmerston had been reading all these years, as his 
journals, published by Lord Dalling, Henry Lytton Bul- 
wer, show. He had travelled much, could speak several 



LORD PALMIERSTON. 75 

languages fluently, — he corresponded admirably in 
French and Italian — had watched carefully the progress 
and defeat of Napoleon I., longed for Italian unity, and, 
most of all, wished, as Bulwer says, "to make and to 
keep England at the head of the world, and to cherish 
in the minds of others the notion that she was so." 

He said, "As long as England sympathizes with right 
and justice, she will never find herself alone. She is 
sure to find some other state of sufficient power, influence, 
and weight to support and aid her in the course she may 
think fit to pursue. Therefore, I say that it is a narrow 
policy to suppose that this country or that is marked out 
as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. 
We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual 
enemies. 

^^Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those 
interests it is our duty to follow. And if I might be 
allowed to express in one sentence the principle which I 
think ought to guide an English minister, I would adopt 
the expression of Canning and say, that with every 
British minister the interests of England ought to be 
the shibboleth of policy.'' 

He brought to this position of Foreign Secretary, three 
essentials, knowledge, decision, and courage. He decided 
quickly when he knew the facts, and had the courage to 
go forward even if England were plunged in war as a 
consequence. 

Macaulay thought Palmerston "a daring, indefatigable, 
high-spirited man, but too fond of conflict, and too ready 
to sacrifice everything to victory, when once he was in 
the ring.'' 

" From war, as war/' says Lord Shaftesbury, " I believe 
he shrank with horror, but he was inflexibly of opinion 



76 LORD PALMER STON. 

that the best way to avoid it was to speak out boldly, 
and even be prepared to meet the emergency. . . . On 
matters where he fully believed that he was master of 
the subject, his conclusions were very decided and posi- 
tively unchangeable. This was the case, for example, 
as to his foreign policy ; and yet no one will say that, 
either in public debate or private conversation, he main- 
tained his opinions offensively ; and, in truth, on these 
points he was too well satisfied with himself to be angry. 
Those who then differed from him, he regarded with 
something like compassion ; and I am sure that the sen- 
timent, though he did not utter it, was often in his 
mind, ' Poor things ! they know no better.' " 

Bulwer having come into Parliament, made Palm erston's 
acquaintance at a party given by Lady Cowper, whom 
Palmerston afterwards married. He describes Palmer- 
ston as "a man in the full vigor of middle age, very well 
dressed, very good-looking, with the large thick whiskers 
worn at the time. His air was more that of a man of 
the drawing-room than of the senate; but he had a clear, 
short, decisive way of speaking on business, which struck 
me at once. All the questions he put to me went straight 
to the point ; and one could see that he was gathering 
information for the purpose of fortifying opinions." 

Palmerston's first great work as Foreign Secretary was 
in securing the independence of Belgium. It had been 
agreed by the Allied Powers in 1814, as a consequence 
of the Treaty of Paris, that Holland and Belgium should 
be united under the King of Holland, thus making the 
Netherlands a powerful kingdom against any future 
attacks of the French. A line of fortresses had been 
constructed along the frontier, under the superintendence 
of Wellington. The king had promised to rule impar- 



LORD PALMERSTON. 11 

tially, but he soon curbed the press, forced the Belgians, 
who had always used the French language, to speak 
Dutch in the public courts, and made them pay an undue 
proportion of the taxes. 

After the July Eevolution of 1830 in France, Belgium 
revolted. The king of Holland asked the aid of Eng- 
land to maintain the united kingdom she had helped to 
form. France was inclined to aid Belgium, destroy the 
fortresses on the frontier, and perhaps annex Belgium 
to herself. 

A strong man was needed at the helm of state to pre- 
vent a war between France and England, and Palmerston 
was the man. He felt that to keep Belgium from becom- 
ing a French province, she must have a separate exist- 
ence. 

It was finally arranged that Belgium should be inde- 
pendent, and that the powers should seek no augmenta- 
tion of territory, a thing to which Talleyrand, the French 
minister in London, was loath to consent. He wished 
the Duchy of Luxemburg, which belonged to the German 
Confederation, to be handed over to France, as the French 
frontier was weak in that direction, or, if this were im- 
possible, that France should at least receive the towns 
of Marienburg and Philippeville. 

Palmerston stood firm. He wrote to Lord Granville, 
British ambassador at Paris : " I do not like all this ; it 
looks as if France was unchanged in her system of 
encroachment, and it diminishes the confidence in her 
sincerity and good faith which her conduct up to this 
time had inspired. It may not be amiss for you to hint, 
upon any fitting occasion, that though we are anxious to 
cultivate the best understanding with France, and to be 
OH tJ^e terms of the most intimate friendship with her, 



78 LORD PALMER STON. 

yet that it is only on the supposition that she contents 
herself witli the finest territory in Europe, and does not 
mean to open a new chapter ot encroachment and con- 
quest." He wrote later to Granville that Talleyrand 
" fought like a dragon " for territorial acquisition. 

The Belgians wished to choose for their sovereign the 
Due de Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe. Palmer- 
ston at once informed Talleyrand that such a union be- 
tween France and Belgium would be made at the risk of a 
war with England. Immediately Erance began military 
preparations on a large scale, and England did the same. 
Talleyrand asked Palmerston about ''the naval arma- 
ments going on in England." Palmerston said "the 
best reply he could make to that question was by asking 
another, namely, 'What was the nature and object of the 
naval armament in the Erench ports ? ' " 

The Belgians finally chose Prince Leopold of Saxe- 
Coburg, as their king, who agreed to marry a Erench 
princess, and good feeling was restored. Prince Leo- 
pold seemed the wisest possible choice. He was at this 
time about forty years of age, a scholar, a soldier, and a 
statesman. When a youth he had travelled extensively, 
speaking several languages. He had served in the Rus- 
sian army. At Lutzen, at Gersdorf, and other battle- 
fields, he had been so brave that he had received the 
orders of Maria Theresa, St. George, Black Eagle, and 
St. Andrew. At the battle of Leipsic he held a most 
dangerous post. He re-enforced Blucher, took part in the 
battle of Brienne, and, March 31, entered Paris with the 
allied armies. 

After this he visited England, and was received with 
great delight. He was twenty-three, handsome, and 
talented. Charlotte, only daughter of George IV., then 



LOBD PALMERSTON, 79 

Prince of Wales, was the idol of the EDglish nation, 
and the heir to the throne. She was twenty-one, lovely 
and attractive in face, and of unusual mental attain- 
ments. She had become especially endeared to the 
nation by her devotion to her mother, Caroline of Bruns- 
wick, separated from her husband ; and through the 
hope that England would, in her, have a reign of peace 
and virtue after the corrupt and extravagant Georges. 

She had many offers of marriage, but she preferred 
and accepted Prince Leopold. They were married May 
2, 1816, and England gave him a pension of fifty thou- 
sand pounds, with the rank of general. He took his 
bride to Claremont, where, in the autumn of the follow- 
ing year, she died at the birth of her child, also dead. 

England perhaps never before nor since so mourned a 
human being. At the funeral, when she was buried in 
the royal vaults at Windsor, more than two hundred 
thousand persons, all dressed in black, came to pay 
reverence to their dead. Thousands, since that time, 
have stood by that beautiful monument in St. George's 
Chapel, and felt their hearts grow tender as they looked 
upon the marble figure of the mother and her babe. 

Leopold resolved never to leave Claremont, and built 
in his garden a little temple to the memory of Charlotte, 
placing her bust within it. England made him Prince 
Royal, Field Marshal, and Privy Councillor. 

Fifteen years later he accepted the throne of Belgium, 
and married, for reasons of state, the daughter of Louis 
Philippe, August 9, 1832. She died in October of 1850, 
greatly regretted by the nation to whom she had en- 
deared herself. 

When Leopold ascended the throne, he said, "My 
whole ambition is to contribute to the happiness of my 



80 LOBD PALMERSTON. 

fellow creatures. ... I have no desire for it but to 
enable me to do good — a good which will be permanent." 

Leopold I. proved himself a noble ruler. When, in 
1848, all Europe seemed in convulsion, and the people of 
Belgium began to feel the spirit of revolution, he said, 
" Have a republic if you like, but do not have a violent 
revolution. I am ready to resign it whenever you 
choose. ... I will depart without putting you to the 
trouble of barricades." He died at Laeken, near Brus- 
sels, December, 1865, and was succeeded by his able and 
scholarly son, Leopold II. 

Palmerston had had much to combat in winning 
independence for Belgium ; indeed, success is never an 
easy matter. He said that " he had been ridiculed on 
all hands, and held up to the derision of that House, 
and that of the country." Some laughed at his endeav- 
ors to " preserve peace by protocols ; " some were angry 
that at the last, England and France united to compel, 
by force of arms, the King of Holland to recognize the 
kingdom of Belgium ; but posterity has seen that a 
peaceable and prosperous existence for Belgium was the 
result of Palmerston's force and foresight. Lord Gran- 
ville said that " contempt for clamor and abuse was one 
of Palmerston's finest characteristics," and, but for this 
and his courage, he could never have accomplished what 
he did. He used often to say, " One must take men as 
one finds them, and make the best of what is, shut one's 
eyes to failings and faults, and dwell, as much as one 
can, upon good points." 

Palmerston, so absorbed in matters of state that he 
took no time for society while Parliament was in ses- 
sion, did not forget the cause of human freedom in the 
colonies. He wrote to his brother in 1833: "BotlfWest 



LORD PALMERSTON. 81 

Indians and saints are moderately ^/ssatisfied with our 
plans for the abolition of slavery. To be sure, we give 
the West Indians a tolerably good compensation. I 
really believe that the twenty millions which are to be 
voted for them are about the whole value of all the 
estates at the present market price ; so that they will 
receive nearly the value of their estates, and keep those 
estates into the bargain. I must say it is a splendid 
instance of generosity and justice, unexampled in the 
history of the world, to see a nation (for it is the 
national will, and not merely the resolve of the Govern- 
ment or the Parliament) emancipate seven hundred and 
fifty thousand slaves, and pay twenty ruillions sterling to 
their owners as compensation for the loss they will sus- 
tain. People sometimes are greatly generous at the 
expense of others, but it is not often that men are found 
to pay so high a price for the luxury of doing a noble 
action." Slavery in the West Indies was abolished 
August 1, 1834, Avitli a compensation to the owners of 
twenty million pounds. 

During these years, Turkey, as usual, was disturbing 
the peace of Europe. Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of 
Egypt, had risen in revolt against the Sultan Mahmoud. 
The latter appealed to England for aid, which the Cabi- 
net refused. Then he asked Russia to help, and imme- 
diately an army was despatched to the mouth of the 
Bosphorus, and Constantinople was saved. But Turkey 
put herself, by the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, signed 
between Turkey and Russia, July 8, 1833, under the 
control of the Tsar Nicholas, and promised " to close 
the Strait of the Dardanelles, that is to say, not to allow 
any foreign vessels of war to enter therein under any 
pretext whatever." 



82 LORD PALMERSTON. 

Both England and France were indignant at this 
treaty. Mehemet Ali, thongh conquered for the time, 
was not to remain subject. In 1839 the Sultan declared 
war against his irrepressible vassal. The Sultan died 
soon after, and the Lord High Admiral of the Ottoman 
fleet treacherously handed over his fleet to Mehemet 
Ali. 

Palmerston at once determined the part he was to act. 
France was willing that Mehemet Ali should govern not 
only Egypt, but Syria and Arabia, and so make for her- 
self an open door to India. ^' Remusat," wrote Palmer- 
ston to Granville, " has let the cat out of the bag, by 
declaring that France, in protecting Mehemet Ali, meant 
to establish a new second-rate maritime power in the 
Mediterranean, whose fleet might unite with that of 
France for the purpose of sei'ving as a counterpoise to 
that of England. That is plain-spoken, at all events." 

Palmerston at once caused the Quadrilateral Alliance 
to be formed, July 15, 1840, whereby Eussia, Austria, 
Prussia, and Turkey bound themselves in aid of the 
latter, and to conquer the Pasha of Egypt. But all was 
not peace among these allies. Metternich of Austria 
wished to give only moral support, not to use arms. 
Prussia was w^eak, and followed the lead of Austria. 
The English Court was against Palmerston. The Cabi- 
net feared an open rupture w^ith France, as Thiers the 
Prime Minister, was eager for war. Lord Melbourne, 
then Premier of England, only gave his consent to the 
alliance, because Palmerston threatened to resign if he 
did not. 

Palmerston held steadily but firmly to his position. 
He seemed to rule England — England certainly did not 
rule him. He wrote to Bulwer, charge d'affaires at 



LOBD PALMERSrON. 83 

Paris : " If Thiers should again hold out to you the 
language of menace, however indistinctly and vaguely 
shadowed out, . . . convey to him in the most friendly 
and unoffensive manner possible, that, if France throws 
down the gauntlet of war, \ve shall not refuse to pick it 
up ; and that if she begins a war, she will, to a certainty, 
lose her ships, colonies, and commerce, before she sees 
the end of it ; that her army of Algiers will cease to 
give her anxiety, and that Mehemet Ali will just be 
chucked into the Nile." The war minister, Thiers, was 
dismissed by Louis Philippe, and Guizot called to power. 
Evidently Palmerston's strong words were taking effect. 

The Allied fleet bombarded Beyrout, September 16; 
Commodore Charles Napier took Sidon, September 26 ; and 
Acre surrendered November 3. France now desired to 
assist in the final settlement, but Palmerston wrote 
Granville that such a thing could not be allowed. " If 
France had -"oined us in July, and had been party to the 
coercive measures we undertook, we should have been 
delighted to have had her assistance, and she would 
have come in as an ally and protector of the Sultan.'^ 

Palmerston obtained, by a convention concluded at 
London, July 13, 1841, such terms as made Egypt sub- 
missive to the Sultan, and Turkey saved from the domin- 
ion of Eussia. The Dardanelles and the Bosphorus 
were closed to the ships of war of all the Powers. 

Palmerston had by such courage, wisdom, and diplo- 
macy, " raised,'' says Sanders, " the prestige of England 
throughout Europe to a height which it had not occupied 
since Waterloo. He had created Belgium, saved Portu- 
gal and Spain from absolutism, rescued Turkey from 
E/Ussia, and the highway to India from France. He had, 
in fact, reached the zenith of his career as foreign min- 



84 LORD PALMEBSrON. 

ister, and Canning, though far greater in his conceptions, 
had been completely outdone by his disciple in perform- 
ances.'' 

The Greville Memoirs state that "Madame de Fla- 
hault had a letter written by Talleyrand soon after his 
first arrival in England, in which he talked with great 
contempt of the ministers generally, Lord Grey in- 
cluded, and said that there was but one statesman among 
them, and that was Palmerston. His ordinary con- 
versation exhibits no such superiority ; but when he 
takes his pen in his hand, his intellect seems to have 
full play, and probably when engaged exclusWely in 
business." 

A great leader among great men, wealthy, happy- 
tempered, and much sought after, Palmerston seemed to 
need but one thing to make life complete, — a union 
with the lady whom he, as well as all England, had long 
admired. This was Lady Cowper, a brilliant leader in 
society, especially remarkable for her knowledge of poli- 
tics and literature, her charm of manner, her enthusiasm, 
her tact, and her good sense. She was a sister of Lord 
Melbourne, the Premier, and the mother of three sons 
and two daughters, Emily, wife of Lord Shaftesbury, 
being one of them. Greville says : " Lady Cowper and 
her daughters inspect personally the cottages and condi- 
tions of the poor. They visit, inquire, and give ; they 
distribute flannel, medicines, money, and they talk to 
and are kind to them ; so that the result is a perpetual 
stream flowing from a real fountain of benevolence, 
which waters all the country round, and gladdens the 
hearts of the peasantry, and attaches them to those from 
whom it emanates. Lord Cowper, to whom Lady 
Cowper was married at eighteen, had died in 1837, and 



LOBB PALMEBSTON. 85 

she and Palmerston were married December 16, 1839, 
when she was fifty-two, and he fifty-five. 

It was thorouglily a love union. Lord Shaftesbury 
said: "His attentions to Lady Palmerston, when they 
both of them were well stricken in years, w^ere those of 
a perpetual courtship. The sentiment was reciprocal ; 
and I have frequently seen them go out on a morning to 
plant some trees, almost believing that they would live 
to eat the fruit, or sit together under their shade." 
Shaftesbury rejoiced that she outlived her husband by 
four years, as he thought Palmerston could not have 
lived had she been taken first, so devoted was he to her. 
When past eighty, and near his own death, "the most 
touching and characteristic feature of his bearing," says 
Hon. Evelyn Ashley, the son of Shaftesbury, " was 
his solicitude to avoid adding to Lady Palmerston's 
anxiety, and the cheerfulness which he assumed in her 
presence." 

Like his wife, Palmerston was thoughtful and kind to 
his tenants. Ashlej^ says : " One day Lady Palmerston 
brought him home word that during her drive she had 
heard of one of his tenants having met with a serious 
accident. Although it was late, and the hour for his 
daily work in his library, he instantly ordered his horse, 
and within half an hour was by the side of what proved 
to be a dying man." 

After Lady Palmerston's death, Shaftesbury wrote in 
his journal : " To my dying hour I shall remember her 
perpetual sunshine of expression and affectionate grace, 
the outward sign of inward sincerity, of kindness, gen- 
erosity, and love. Her pleasure was to see others 
pleased ; and without art or effort, or even intention, 
she fascinated every one who came within her influence. 



86 LORD PALMERSTON. 

Forty years have I been her son-in-law, and during all 
that long time she has heen to me a well-spring of ten- 
der friendship and affectionate service. . . . 

"Few great men, and no women except those who 
have sat upon thrones, have received after death such 
abundant and sincere testimonies of admiration, re- 
spect, and affection. The press has teemed with articles 
descriptive of her life and character, all radiant with 
feeling and expressive of real sorrow. None surpassed 
the Times in delineation and eulogy." 

The Times said, " To place her husband and keep him 
in what she thought his proper position ; to make people 
see him as she saw him ; to bring lukewarm friends, 
carping rivals, or exasperated enemies, within the genial 
atmosphere of his conversation ; to tone down opposi- 
tion, and conciliate support — this was henceforth the 
fixed purpose and master passion of her life. . . . 

"The attraction of Lady Palmerston's salon at its 
commencement was the mixed, yet select and refined, 
character of the assemblage, the result of that exquisite 
tact and high-breeding which secured her the full bene- 
fits of exclusiveness without its drawbacks. The diplo- 
matic corps eagerly congregated at the house of the 
Secretary for Foreign Affairs. So did the politicians. 
The leading members of the fine world were her habitual 
associates, and the grand difficulty of her self-appointed 
task lay in recruiting from among the rising celebrities 
of public life, fashion, or literature. . . . 

" The services of the great lady to the great states- 
man extended far beyond this creation of a salon. What 
superficial observers mistook for indiscretion was emi- 
nently useful to him. She always understood full well 
what she was telling, to whom she was telling it, when 



LORD PALMERSTOJSr. 87 

and where it should be repeated, and whether the repe- 
tition would do harm or good. Instead of the secret 
that was betrayed, it was the feeler that was put forth ; 
and no one ever knew from or through Lady Palmerston 
what Lord Palmerston did not wish to be known." 

What Palmerston's married life would have been with 
a woman who knew little of the great questions of the 
day, of politics, and still less of books, it is not difficult 
to see. Pretty women gave him homage, but he had 
the good sense to seek for companionship, and found it. 
Many women are not averse to marrying prominent 
statesmen, but do not always ask themselves if they are 
intellectually fitted to hold the admiration they may 
have won, or to help the leader in his work. To win 
affection is one thing, to hold it as long as life lasts is 
quite another thing. 

When Sir Robert Peel became Premier, in 1841, Lord 
Aberdeen was appointed Foreign Secretary instead of 
Palmerston, though the latter was still a member of 
Parliament. He again became Foreign Secretary under 
Lord John Russell in 1847. Through these six years 
occurred the unfortunate Chinese War, concluded in 
1842, when Hong Kong was ceded to England, five ports 
were thrown open to British traders, and four millions 
and a half sterling paid as indemnity. Palmerston on the 
whole favored the war, which many of his countrymen 
have heartily condemned. He also favored, though he 
did not assume the responsibility for, the Afghan War, 
which proved in the end most disastrous to England. 

Afghanistan lies between Persia and India, and has 
always been the great highway from Western to Eastern 
Asia. The founder of the Afghan empire, Ahmed Shah, 
died in 1773. After the death of his son Timur Shah, 



88 LORD PALMERSTON. 

dissensions arose, and a rival, Dost Mahomed Khan, be- 
came the head of Cabul, then one of the three independ- 
ent principalities of Afghanistan. Persia, the friend of 
llnssia, made war upon Herat, one of the three princi- 
palities, and it was declared by the ministers of the Shah 
that Persia intended after the capture of Herat to con- 
quer the remainder of Afghanistan. 

England, always sensitive about Russian interference 
Avith her Indian possessions, felt that Afghanistan must 
be ruled by men friendly to her interests. While Dost 
Mahomed professed friendship for England, his profes- 
sions were distrusted — England had declined to aid 
him, and he had sided with Kussia — and Lord Auck- 
land, Grovernor-general of India, resolved to drive him 
from Cabul, and restore a relative of Timur Shah to 
the throne, — Sujah Shah, whom Dost Mahomed had 
overthrown. 

The British army had to force its way through Scinde, 
a peaceful country ; it waded through rivers, and hewed 
paths through jungles, the murderous Beluchees hover- 
ing on its flanks. Ghuzni, defended by one of Dost 
Mahomed's sons, was stormed and taken. Jellalabad, 
defended by Akbar Khan, another of Dost Mahomed's 
sons, was captured. Dost Mahomed was driven from 
Cabul, and Sujah Shah, escorted by British troops, was 
made the ruler. 

England had conquered, and there was rejoicing in 
Great Britain. She left eight thousand men to defend 
the new ruler, and felt that peace was assured. 

Sujah Shah was incompetent, and Dost Mahomed was 
able and beloved by his people. The latter did not long 
remain inactive. He fought bravely, but could not con- 
tend forever against so great a power as England, and 



LORD PALMERSTON. 89 

finally went to India, where England gave him a resi- 
dence and a revenue. 

On November 2, 1841, an insurrection broke out in 
Cabul. The daring Akbar Khan was called to lead the 
enemy. He defeated the English, killing many of the 
officers, some of whose mangled bodies were exhibited 
in triumph in the streets and bazaars of Cabul. He was 
urged by the frantic Afghans to kill all the English, and 
it was difficult to save them from the natives. The 
""English were at once told to leave the country, release 
Dost Mahomed and his family, and hand over as host- 
ages six officers until these matters were accomplished. 

The departure of the English from Cabul was terrible. 
Justin McCarthy, in his " History of Our Own Times," 
thus describes this never-to-be-forgotten march: "It 
was the heart of a cruel winter. The English had to 
make their way through the awful Pass of Koord Cabul. 
This stupendous gorge runs for some five miles between 
mountain ranges so narrow, lofty, and grim, that in the 
winter season the rays of the sun can hardly pierce its 
darkness even at the noontide. Down the centre dashed 
a precipitous mountain torrent so fiercely that the stern 
frost of that terrible time could not stay its course. 
The snow lay in masses on the ground ; the rocks and 
stones that raised their heads above the snow in the way 
of the unfortunate travellers were slippery with frost. 
Soon the white snow began to be stained and splashed 
with blood. 

" Fearful as this Koord Cabul Pass was, it was only 
a degree worse than the road which for two whole days 
the English had to traverse to reach it. The army which 
set out from Cabul numbered more than four thousand 
fighting men, of whom Europeans formed but a small 



90 LORD PALMERSTON. 

proportion ; and some twelve thousand camp followers 
of all kinds. There were also many women and 
children. . . . 

"The winter journey would have been cruel and dan- 
gerous enough in time of peace; but this journey had 
to be accomplished in the midst of something far worse 
than common war. At every step of the road, every 
opening of the rocks, the unhappy crowd of confused 
and heterogeneous fugitives were beset by bands of 
savage fanatics, who with their long guns and long 
knives were murdering all they could reach. . . . 

"The English soldiers, weary, weak, and crippled by 
frost, could make but a poor fight against the savage 
Afghans. Men, w^omen, and children, horses, ponies, 
camels, the wounded, the dying, the dead, all crowded 
together in almost inextricable confusion among the 
snow and amid the relentless enemies." 

" The massacre," says Sir J. W. Kaye in his " Afghan- 
istan War," " was fearful in this Koord Cabul Pass. 
Three thousand men are said to have fallen under the 
fire of the enemy, or to have dropped down paralyzed 
and exhausted, to be slaughtered by the Afghan knives. 
And amidst these fearful scenes of carnage, through a 
shower of matchlock balls rode English ladies on horse- 
back or in camel paniers, sometimes vainly endeavoring 
to keep their children beneath their eyes, and losing 
them in the confusion and bewilderment of the desolating 
march." 

Akbar Khan, who accompanied the army, but who 
could not prevent, he said, the murdering of the English, 
now arranged that the women and children, and later it 
was agreed the husbands of these women also, should be 
conveyed by him in safety to Peshawur. 



LORD PALMERSTON. 91 

"Then," says McCarthy, "the march of the army 
without a general went on again. Soon it became the 
story of a general without an army ; before very long 
there was neither general nor army. The straggling 
remnant of an army entered the Jugdulhik Pass — a 
dark, steep, narrow, ascending path between crags. The 
miserable toilers found that the fanatical, implacable 
tribes had barricaded the pass. All was over. The 
army of Cabul was finally extinguished in that barri- 
caded pass. It was a trap : the British were taken in it. 

" A few mere fugitives escaped from the scene of 
actual slaughter, and were on the road to Jellalabad, 
where Sale and his little army were holding their own. 
When they were within sixteen miles of Jellalabad the 
number was reduced to six. Of these six, live were 
killed by straggling marauders on the way. One man 
alone reached Jellalabad to tell the tale. Literally, one 
man. Dr. Brydon, came to Jellalabad out of a moving 
host which had numbered in all some sixteen thousand 
when it set out on its march. 

" The curious eye will search through history or fiction 
in vain for any picture more thrilling with the sugges- 
tions of an awful catastrophe than that of this solitary 
survivor, faint and reeling on his jaded horse, as he 
appeared under the walls of Jellalabad, to bear the tid- 
ings of our Thermopylae of pain and shame." 

Sir Robert Sale defended Jellalabad, and defeated 
Akbar Khan who besieged it. The women and children, 
after enduring the greatest privations, were rescued. 
Finally, in April, 1842, General Pollock came to the 
relief of Jellalabad. At the JitgduUuk Pass he met and 
defeated the enemy in September. Here, where eight 
months before the English army had been entrapped, 



92 LORD PALMERSTON. 

writes Philip F. Walker in his "Afghanistan," "the 
skeletons lay so thick that they had to be cleared away 
to allow the guns to pass. The savage grandeur of the 
scene rendered it a fitting place for the deed of blood 
which had been enacted under its horrid shade, never 
yet pierced in some places by sunlight. The road was 
strewn for two miles with mouldering skeletons like a 
charnel-house." 

General Pollock entered Cabul, September 15, and de- 
stroyed the great bazaar, where the mutilated bodies of 
the British oihcers had been displayed. 

Meantime, the Sujah Shah had been assassinated, 
and his son also. Dost Mahomed returned to Cabul, and 
ruled until his death, in 1863, — he conquered Herat a 
few days before his death, — when he was succeeded by 
his son Shere Ali. 

During these years, 1841-1847, Palmerston and Daniel 
Webster had a spirited war of words over the burning 
by the British of the Caroline, an American vessel which 
had carried stores to Canada during her rebellion ; and 
over the boundary line between Canada and the United 
States, finally settled by the Ashburton Treaty, under 
the more peaceful administration of Lord Aberdeen. 

In 1847, when Palmerston was back in power as the 
Foreign Secretary, it was not without strong fears on 
the part of the Queen and his own party that he would 
lead England into war by his boldness. He wrote to 
Sir Stratford Canning in December, 1850 : " I believe 
weakness and irresolution are, on the whole, the worst 
faults that statesmen can have. A man of energy may 
make a wrong decision, but, like a strong horse that 
carries you rashly into a quagmire, he brings you by his 
sturdiness out on the other side." 



LORD PAL3rERST0N. 93 

At the outbreak of the Franco-Austrian War in 1859, 
Monsieur Drouyn de Lhuys said : " I sigh for one hour 
of Palmerston. No one knows better than I do his faults. 
I have often suffered by them, and so has England, and 
so has Europe. But his merits, his sagacity, his courage, 
his trustworthiness, are invaluable when you want 

' A daring pilot in extremity,' 

with whom one feels as if one was mounted on a first- 
rate hunter, who pulls indeed, and rears and kicks, but 
never swerves, never starts, and carries you over every- 
thing as long as you give him his head." 

Palmerston had, says Ashley, '^ great pluck, combined 
with remarkable tact ; unfailing good temper, associated 
with firmness amounting almost to obstinacy. He was 
a strict disciplinarian, and yet ready above most men to 
make allowance for the weakness and shortcomings of 
others. He loved hard work in all its details, and yet 
took a keen delight in many kinds of sport and amuse- 
ment. 

"He believed in England as the best and greatest 
country in the w^orld, while he had not confined his 
observation to her affairs, but knew and cared more 
about foreign nations than any other public man. He 
had little or no vanity in his composition, and, as is seen 
in several of his letters to his brother, he claimed but a 
modest value for his own abilities ; yet no man had a 
better opinion of his own judgment, or was more full of 
self-confidence." 

No sooner was Palmerston back in office than trouble 
began with France over the Spanish marriages. Por- 
tugal was in a manner dependent upon England. 
Guizot said that France wished the same close bond 



94 LOBB PALMERSTON, 

between herself and Spain. The Regent of Spain, 
Christina, wished her daughter, Queen Isabella, to marry 
the Due d' Aumale, the son of Louis Philippe. This 
the French king refused, as he knew England would 
)bject to such a union of the Powers ; but he arranged 
for the marriage of the sister of Isabella with his 
youngest son, the Due de Montpensier, promising Queen 
Victoria that the marriage should not take place till 
Isabella was married and had children, so that a French 
prince should not come to the throne. 

Isabella, after the unholy fashion of state alliances, 
married her cousin Francisco, Duke of Cadiz, whom 
both she and her mother hated ; the latter saying he was 
" not a man," and Palmerston called him ^' an absolute and 
absolutist fool." On the same day, October 10, 1846, 
the double marriage took place in direct opposition to 
the promise of Louis Philippe. At once England and 
France became enemies. Metternich was angered and 
said : " One does not with impunity play little tricks 
with great countries. . . . The English Government 
have done their best to establish Louis Philippe in pub- 
lic opinion. They can withdraw what they gave, and I 
have always said, the moment he loses that, he is on the 
verge of war, and his is not a dynasty that can stand 
war." In less than two years the Orleans, dynasty fell, 
in February, 1848, and Louis Philippe was an exile 
in England. In December of the same year Louis 
Napoleon was declared president-elect of the French 
Republic. Queen Isabella of Spain bore children, and 
the wife of the Due de Montpensier never came to the 
throne as her father had fondly hoped. 

1848 was a year of revolutions in Europe. Italy had 
long been eager for independence. Since the day when 



LORD PALMERSTON. 95 

Napoleon I. conquered her by arms and honeyed speech : 
" People of Italy, the French come to break your chains ; 
the French people is the friend of every people — come 
and welcome them. Your property, your customs, your 
religion, shall be respected ; we make war like generous 
enemies, — only against the tyrants who hold you 
enslaved : " since that day in 1796, she had been torn by 
dissensions. Napoleon told Prince Metternich : " Never 
will I give Italians a liberal system ; I have only granted 
them the semblance of it." 

When the Congress of Vienna parcelled Italy among 
the nations, Austria took Lombardy and Venice ; Ferdi- 
nand II. ruled the Two Sicilies with a rod of iron. The 
King of Piedmont kept that country, with Savoy and 
Genoa. Of course there was dissatisfaction. Secret 
societies flourished, prominent among them the Car- 
bonari, all working for liberty. In the Two Sicilies 
there were said' to be eight hundred thousand Carbonari 
as early as 1820. 

Again and again the different provinces revolted, and 
demanded constitutions from their sovereigns. Joseph 
Mazzini, the head of "y-oung Italy," wished a free, 
united republic. 

In 1848, quickened by the French Revolution, Italy 
was in commotion. Pope Pius IX., ruler of the Papal 
States, had granted many reforms. Others were prom- 
ised by Ferdinand II. of Naples, Charles Albert of 
Piedmont, and Leopold II. of Tuscany. Austria seemed 
about to interfere. Palmerston, always a friend to 
Italy, and a most careful student of her affairs, wrote to 
Lord Ponsonby, English minister at Vienna, asking him 
to tell Prince Metternich, "If he takes upon himself 
the task of regulating by force of arms the internal 



96 LORD PALMEUSTON. 

affairs of the Italian States, tliere will infallibly be war, 
and it will be a war of principles, which, beginning in 
Italy, will spread over all Europe, and out of which the 
Austrian Empire will certainly not issue unchanged. In 
that war England and Austria will certainly not be on 
the same side." 

He begged of Italy to keep in the constitutional line 
she had begun ; urged other nations to recognize the 
French Republic, and thus preserve peace ; entreated the 
Prussian Government not to begin hostilities against 
Denmark. When Austria, driven out of Venice and 
Milan, asked for the " good offices " of England, Palmers- 
ton replied that "■ matters had gone too far." " The 
real fact," said Palmerston, "is that the Austrians have 
no business in Italy at all, and have no real right to be 
there. . . . The Treaty of Vienna they themselves set 
at naught when they took possession of Cracow, and 
they have never fulfilled their engagement to give 
national institutions and a national representation to 
their Polish subjects. . . . Her rule has always been 
hateful. It is the part of a friend to tell the truth, 
and the truth is that Austria cannot and must not retain 
Lombardy." 

Austria was, of course, indignant, and Palmerston 
was berated by Schwarzenberg, who had succeeded 
Metternich. 

When Milan and Venice revolted, Charles Albert 
threw himself into the national movement, to free Italy 
from Austria. The hated Ferdinand of Naples was 
obliged to issue a proclamation to " his beloved people " 
that he would join in the common cause. 

So much did he profess to love the cause, that, though 
he refused to adopt the Italian tricolor, he said he 



LORD PALMERSTON. 97 

" preferred the red cockade, as it was the color of the 
heart ! '' 

On March 25, 1848, Charles Albert crossed the Ticino 
with his enthusiastic army, and attacked the Austrians 
with success at Gaeta. Five days later, a battle was 
fought at Pastrengo, between the Mincio and the Adige, 
and Charles Albert was again victorious. The Austrians 
were commanded by Marshal Kadetzky, an aged man, 
but an able leader. After several weeks of almost con- 
stant fighting, Charles Albert was defeated, though 
brave, and ably seconded by his sons, the Dukes of 
Savoy and Genoa. The Duke of Savoy was afterwards 
Victor Emmanuel II., the hero of United Italy. 

Charles Albert returned to Milan with the remainder 
of his army, thirty thousand men, but was soon obliged 
to capitulate, and Kadetzky took possession of the city. 
Ferdinand had treacherously recalled his army of six- 
teen thousand men from Charles Albert, or the tide 
might have turned for Italy. 

Pius IX., while holding temporal power, did not wish 
to make war upon his spiritual subjects, the Austrians. 
So bitter became the hostility of his own people that he 
fled to Gaeta. Later, Louis Napoleon helped to reinstate 
him at Home. 

On March 12, 1849, the heroic Charles Albert decided 
to fight Austria again. The struggle was brief. He 
was defeated, March 23, at Novaro, and with him the 
hopes of United Italy for many years. He courted 
death on the battle-field. So decisive was his defeat 
that he abdicated in favor of the Duke of Savoy, 
hoping thereby to secure better terms for his stricken 
country. He went to Oporto, the place he selected for 
his exile, and died a few months after. 



98 LORD PALMER STON. 

" Little, iDdeed," writes John Webb Probyn in his 
" Italy," '^ did either victors or vanquished imagine that 
he [Victor Emmanuel] who had thus begun his reign on 
the disastrous field of Novaro, would end it at Eome, 
recognized by every European government as the king 
of a free and united Italy, wUh the Eternal City as its 
capital." 

Austrian victories continued. The Venetian Republic, 
with the noble Daniel Manin at its head, resolved to 
resist Austria "at all costs." They determined "that 
the silver of the churches, the bronze of the bells, the 
gold and jewels of the wealthy, the copper vessels of 
the kitchen, the very bullets and balls of the enemy, 
must serve in the defence of the city." Three million 
francs were raised at once. The batteries of the lagoons 
close to Venice, with the gunboats in the canals, and 
the fortifications, were made as efficient as possible. 
Once the Austrians made an attack on the fortress of 
Malghera and were defeated. 

Palmerston wrote a letter full of sympathy to Manin, 
but could do nothing more to aid the republic. Again 
the Austrians attacked Malghera, with one hundred and 
fifty heavy pieces, at a distance of five hundred meters. 
The fort was soon in ruins. Finally provisions and 
money grew scarce in Venice. Cholera and other dis- 
eases were doing their fatal work. People had left their 
houses, demolished by shells, and had taken refuge in 
the Doge's palace. At last the city submitted. On the 
27th of August, 1849, the Austrian soldiers defiled past 
the closed doors and along the deserted streets of Venice, 
and Manin ■ and his devoted leaders went into exile. 
Manin died eight years later, a noble patriot and a 
brave statesman. 



LORD PALMEliSTON. 99 

Austria conquered Tuscany, and Duke Leopold, who 
had fled to the king of Naples, was restored to his 
throne, and kept upon it by Austrian bayonets. General 
Haynau, called the " Austrian butcher," stormed and 
took Brescia with brutal cruelty. King Ferdinand of 
Naples used his sixteen thousand soldiers to put an end 
to liberty in Sicily. He conquered Messina and 
Palermo. 

The English minister at Naples Avrote home that 
" The barbarities inflicted on Messina so disgusted the 
French and English admirals that they could not remain 
passive spectators of such scenes." Mr. Gladstone wrote 
some remarkable letters to Lord Aberdeen on the ter- 
rible condition of the prisons, filled w^ith political pris- 
oners, and the injustice and cruelt}^ of the state trials 
under '^ Bomba's " government, a nickname which Fer- 
dinand had gained by his wickedness. 

Palmerston w^as so fully in sympathy with Italy that 
he allowed arms to be supplied to the Sicilian insurgents 
from the Ordnance, and had to apologize to Ferdinand. 
Without doubt, if Palmerston had not been fettered by 
a Court in favor of Austria, and a Conservative party 
opposed to war, England would have aided Italy by 
arms, or spoken so plainly to Austria that she would 
have hesitated in her unholy attempts at subjugation. 

While Italy was in revolution, Hungary had also 
revolted against Austria. Hungary had long had its 
separate constitution, parliament, and laws, and the 
Emperor of Austria was also King of Hungary. Austria 
Avished to destroy the constitution, and incorporate 
Hungary with the Empire. She called in the aid of 
Russia. Emperor Nicholas quickly responded with 
one hundred and fifty thousand men, and Hungary lay 
prostrate. 



100 LORD PALMERSTON. 

Palmerston had vainly attempted to mediate, and pre- 
vent the assistance of Russia, but it was impossible. 
When Hungary had been subdued, both Russia and 
Austria demanded that Turkey give up those who had 
fled thither for safety, among them Kossuth and Bem, a 
crippled Pole, who had led the Hungarians with great 
success. The Sultan resisted, and Russia and Austria 
seemed about to declare war. 

Lord Palmerston determined to support the Sultan, 
who applied to England and France for aid, in his act 
of humanity to the refugees. The Russian minister in 
London, Baron Brunnow, was informed that the British 
fleet was to be sent to the Dardanelles, to strengthen the 
courage of the Sultan, ''just as one holds a bottle of salts 
to the nose of a lady who has been frightened," said 
Palmerston. No doubt the presence of the fleet was 
invigorating, and the Sultan refused to deliver up the 
patriots to their conquerors. 

The Turkish Government feared at first to let the 
refugees depart, till Palmerston wrote to Sir Stratford 
Canning that England was viewing with " contemptuous 
disgust" the conduct of "the Saltan and his white- 
livered ministers," and that they might be told the same. 
Kossuth and his friends were liberated, and came to 
England, where they were everywhere received with 
ovations, as Garibaldi had been. 

Palmerston now had to turn his busy mind in another 
direction. It was like a game of chess, and no doubt he 
enjoyed it. " In his day," writes Lord Shaftesbury, " he 
was oftentimes twitted with love of office. He never 
denied his predilection for it. He even maintained that 
the pursuit of it was to some persons almost a duty. 
He did not think himself single in this view ; for he 



LOBB PALMEBSTON. 101 

said to me one day, ' I have never known any public 
man, who after a certain tenure of office 'did not pray to be 
quit of it ; nor any who having been turned out of office 
did not wish, after a very short time, to get back again.' 

" Unquestionably he was born for a bureau ; the thing 
and its whole surroundings were a part of his existence. 
It amounted to a complete absorption of the man in his 
devotion to the special duties ; he then scarcely gave a 
thought to other matters. And I could adduce some 
remarkable instances, during times when the pressure 
of foreign affairs was urgent and heavy, of his almost 
absolute ignorance of what was passing in the world, the 
House of Commons, and even in the Cabinet." 

The matter which Palmerston had now in hand con- 
cerned Greece. When Otho had been put upon the 
throne of Greece by England, France, and Eussia, it 
had been as a constitutional monarch. He was in 
reality an absolutist, and cared nothing for the con- 
stitution. Several acts of lawlessness had occurred 
against Turkish subjects. The house of Don Pacifico, 
of Gibraltar, had been broken into and pillaged in open 
day by a mob headed by the sons of the Minister of 
War. Palmerston demanded redress, and, failing to 
receive it, sent the British fleet to Athens. Terms were 
quickly agreed upon, but the Russian and French minis- 
ters were indignant that Palmerston should have acted 
alone. 

There was an attempt to censure Palmerston in the 
House of Lords. In the House of Commons four nifjhts 
were spent on the debate ; Sir Robert Peel making his 
last speech, and Gladstone speaking eloquently. On the 
second night Palmerston spoke for four hours and a 
half, from quarter before ten to twenty minutes past 



102 LORD PALMERSTOJSr. 

two o'clock, reviewing his whole foreign policy. He 
said : " While we have seen the political earthquake 
rocking Europe from side to side ; while we have seen 
thrones shaken, shattered, levelled ; institutions over- 
thrown and destroyed ; while in almost every country 
of Europe the conflict of civil war has deluged the land 
with blood, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, from the 
Baltic to the Mediterranean, this country has presented 
a spectacle honorable to the people of England, and 
worthy of the admiration of mankind. We have shown 
that liberty is compatible with order; that individual 
freedom is reconcilable with obedience to the law." 

When Lord Palmerston sat down, the House greeted 
him with prolonged cheers. The nation rejoiced, and 
heartily agreed with Peel when he declared, " It has 
made us all proud of him." 

Soon after this remarkable speech, one hundred and 
twenty members of the House of Commons presented to 
Lady Palmerston a portrait of her husband, with a 
written address expressive of " their high sense of his 
public and private character, and of the independent 
policy by which he maintained the honor and interests 
of his country." 

Sir George Lewis said that by this speech, " he 
defeated the whole Conservative party, Protectionists 
and Peelites, supported by the extreme Radicals, and 
backed by the Times and all the organized forces of 
foreign diplomacy." 

On December 2, 1851, the famous coiqy d^etai of the 
President of the French Republic took place. The 
Queen wished England to be neutral with respect to the 
event, but Palmerston, believing that the Orleans princes 
were about to attempt to regain the throne, had told the 



LORD PALMERSTON. 103 

French ambassador, Count Walensky, that lie approved 
of Napoleon's conduct. These views were repeated in 
Paris, showing at once that the Queen and the Foreign 
Secretary did not think alike. The Queen had already 
censured Palmerston for acting on his own judgment too 
frequently, and the result was that he was dismissed 
from office by the Premier, Lord John Kussell. 

" Palmerston evidently thought he had been ill- 
treated," says Bulwer, "but I never heard him make an 
unfair or irritable remark, nor did he seem in any wise 
stunned by the blow he had received, or dismayed by 
the isolated position in which he stood." 

"Both in private and in public life," says Shaftesbury, 
"Palmerston was of a very placable spirit. ... Of 
public resentments he had no memory at all. . . . On 
one occasion he had decided to name a certain clergy- 
man to a vacant bishopric. A day or two afterwards he 
wrote to me to say that since he had made up his mind 

for Dr. , he had received a letter from Lord Pussell, 

with a request that a friend of his might be appointed 
to the see. ^ If,' he continued, ^ Pussell's man be a good 
and proper man, I should wish to appoint him, because 
you know Kussell once treated me in a very rough way, 
and I desire to show him that I have quite forgotten 
it.' " A good lesson to many both in and out of politics, 
who take revenge whenever opportunity offers. 

Palmerston was glad of a little leisure " after five years 
and a half of galley-slave labor," as he said. The Russell 
ministry was soon defeated, and in the latter part of the 
same year, 1852, Palmerston became Home Secretary 
under Lord Aberdeen as Premier. He chose this depart- 
ment, as he wrote his brother William : " It does not do 
for a man to pass his whole life in one department, and 



104 LORD PALMEESTON. 

the Home Office deals with the concerns of the country 
internally, and brings one in contact with one's fellow- 
countrymen, besides which, it gives one more influence 
in regard to the militia, and the defences of the 
country." 

Palmerston filled his position with the greatest care 
and faithfulness. He visited prisons and looked after 
the ventilation of the cells ; he interested himself in the 
Factory Acts for children. Shaftesbury said : " I never 
knew any Home Secretary equal to Palmerston for readi- 
ness to undertake every good work of kindness, humanity, 
and social good, especially to the child and the working- 
class. No fear of wealth, capital, or election terrors ; 
prepared at all times to run a tilt if he could do good 
by it. Has already done more good than ten of his 
predecessors." 

He paid attention to the health of London by abat- 
ing the smoke nuisance, somewhat ; and by closing 
graveyards within the metropolitan area. He said: 
" England is, I believe, the only country in which, in 
these days, people accumulate putrefying dead bodies 
amid the dwellings of the living ; and as to burying 
bodies under thronged churches, you might as well put 
them under libraries, drawing-rooms, and dining-rooms." 

Meantime trouble was arising over the unending 
Eastern question. A dispute had begun between the 
Roman Catholics in Turkey and the Greek Christians, 
over the " Holy Places." France protected the holy 
places in Palestine, — the tomb of the Virgin, the 
Cliurch in Bethlehem, and the like, — while Russia pro- 
tected the Greek Church. Bitter feeling was engendered 
between France and Russia. 

Palmerston tried to persuade France, through the 



LORD PALMERSTON. 105 

English minister, to modify her demands about the 
Latin or Roman Catholic Church in Turkey. This dis- 
pute finally seemed settled, but Turkey refused to allow 
Russia to " protect " all the millions of Greeks in her 
country. Emperor ]SI"icholas at once sent two divisions 
of his army across the Pruth, and took possession of the 
Danubian principalities. Whether Russia had a right 
to the protectorate or not, England would not see Turkey 
humiliated by Russia, because, in the end, it would mean 
more power for an already powerful nation. 

On October 5, 1853, Turkey demanded that the Emperor 
leave the principalities within fifteen days. On October 
14, at the request of the Sultan, the English and French 
fleets passed up to Constantinople. There was, at first, 
much opposition in England to war. Lord Aberdeen 
hesitated, and hoped that at the last war might be 
averted. 

Palmerston said, with his usual daring : '^ I am desir- 
ous that England should be well with Russia as long as 
the Emperor allows us to be so ; but if he is determined 
to break a lance Avith us, why, then have at him, say I, 
and perhaps he may have enough of it before we have 
done with him. . . . 

" We passed the Rubicon w^hen we first took part with 
Turkey and sent our squadrons to support her ; and 
when England and France have once taken a third 
power by the hand, that third power must be carried in 
safety through the difliculties in which it may be 
involved." 

The Turks and Russians were already in conflict. On 
November 30, 1853, the Turkish squadron, consisting of 
seven frigates, a sloop, and a steamer, were lying at 
Sinope, on the southern shore of the Black Sea. The 



106 LOBB PALMEIiSTON. 

Russian fleet, greatly outnumbering the Turks, bore 
down upon them, and a terrible tight ensued. The whole 
Turkish squadron, except the steamer, was destroyed, 
over four thousand Turks were killed, and of the remain- 
ing four hundred, it was declared that every man was 
wounded. 

England was thrown into a frenzy by this " massacre of 
Sinope." The French emperor sent a letter to Nicholas 
suggesting a scheme for peace, or the Western Powers 
must declare w*ar. The haughty Tsar replied : " Russia 
will prove herself in 1854 what she was in 1812." Then 
she burned Moscow to prevent the French from succeed- 
ing. The results were different in 1854. 

Very soon France and England demanded the evacu- 
ation of the principalities. No answer Avas returned, 
and the allied troops were immediately despatched to 
the East; Lord Raglan, who had lost his right arm under 
Wellington at Waterloo, commanding the English forces, 
and Marshal St. Arnaud, the French. 

The troops landed at Varna. Austria now demand- 
ed — she had fifty thousand troops — that the Tsar should 
withdraw from the principalities. After he had done 
so, it was decided to carry the war into the heart of 
Russia, that is, where she would be soonest crippled. 

This was believed to be the Crimea, with its great 
harbor, docks, and fortifications. September 7, the 
Allies, with their war-ships and their transports, were 
ready to sail from Varna for the Crimea. Cholera had 
broken out in the French ships on their way from Mar- 
seilles, and it soon destroyed or disabled, in three French 
divisions, ten thousand men. Some ships were reduced 
almost to helplessness. 

General Sir Edward Hamley in his " War in the 



LORD PALMEnSTON. 107 

Crimea/' thus describes the ghastly journey: '-The 
troops moved down slowly from their camps ; the poison 
in the air caused a general sickliness, and the men were 
so enfeebled that their knapsacks were borne for them 
on packhorses. . . . The mysterious scourge still pur- 
sued them on board ship, and added a horrible feature 
to the period of detention, for the corpses, sunk with 
shot at their feet, after a time rose to the surface, and 
floated upright, breast high, among the ships, the 
swollen features pressing out the blankets or hammocks 
which enwrapped them." 

Through these dead comrades, the living sailed away, 
to die in trenches, or freeze and starve in the Crimea. 

September 18, the British infantry, twenty-six thou- 
sand men, and the Light Brigade of cavalry, the French 
infantry, twenty-eight thousand men, and seven thou- 
sand Turks, landed in Kalamita Ba}^, and began their 
march south toward Sevastopol. 

Two days later a battle was fought on the banks of 
the Alma Eiver, the Kussian forces, about thirty-seven 
thousand men, on the south of it, nearer to Sevastopol. 
Both sides fought bravely, the Allies winning the battle. 
The Allies lost over three thousand men in killed and 
wounded. The Russians stated their losses as 5,709. 

The Russians were not pursued, as Lord Raglan 
wished, because Marshal St. Arnaud said his men had 
divested themselves of their knapsacks before scaling 
the heights, and must return for them before advancing. 
The Light Brigade was not engaged in the battle. "I 
will keep my cavalry in a bandbox," Lord Raglan 
remarked, of the thousand whom he so highly prized. 
Their sad fate afterwards is a matter of history. 

For the two days following, the Allies buried the 



108 ' LORD PALMERSrON. 

dead of both armies, and established hospitals in some 
empty houses. The cholera went on with its deadly 
work. Kinglake says that when the Tsar heard of the 
defeat at Alma, a burst of rage was followed by days of 
dejection, when he lay on his bed silent and without 
food. 

As soon as the result of the battle of Alma was 
known at Sevastopol, seven ships of war were sunk by 
the Russians, across the entrance of the harbor, in line 
with the forts. It was then necessarily decided by the 
Allies to make a flank movement on Sevastopol, by way 
of Balaklava. The Allies having occupied the heights 
above Balaklava, the Russians attacked them October 25. 
The attack was bold and brilliant ; the repulse brilliant 
and successful. During the engagement Lord Raglan 
sent a written order to Lord Lucan at the head of the 
Light Brigade : '^ Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to 
advance rapidly to the front, and try to prevent the 
enemy carrying away the guns." 

This order was carried by the Quartermaster-General's 
aide-de-camp, Captain Nolan. Lucan read the order 
"with much consideration — perhaps consternation would 
be the better word — at once seeing its impracticability 
for any useful purpose whatever, and the consequent 
great unnecessary risk and loss to be incurred." 

The enemy were on several fronts. Lucan objected. 
Nolan said : " Lord Raglan's orders are that the cavalry 
should attack immediately." 

" Attack, sir ! Attack what ? What guns ? " said 
Lord Lucan. 

The reply of Nolan was : '^ There, my lord, is your 
enemy; there are your guns," as he pointed down the 
valley. It was all too clear that " some one had blun- 



LORD PALMERSTON. 109 

dered," when they rode into the valley of death, as 
Tennyson writes in his thrilling poem. 

The order was given to advance. " The lines," says 
Hamley, " continued to advance at a steady trot, and in 
a minute or two entered the zone of lire, where the air 
was filled with the rush of shot, the bursting of shells, 
and the moan of bullets, while amidst the infernal din 
the work of destruction went on, and men and horses 
were incessantly dashed to the ground. . . . 

" A deadlier tire awaited them from the twelve guns in 
front, which could scarcely fail to strike somewhere on a 
line a hundred yards wide. It was when the brigade had 
been advancing for about five minutes that it came within 
range of this battery, and the effect was manifest at 
once in the increased number of men and horses that 
strewed the plain. With the natural wish to shorten 
this ordeal, the pace was increased ; when the brigade 
neared the battery, more than half its numbers were on 
the grass of the valley, dead or struggling to their feet ; 
but, still unwavering, not a man failing who was not yet 
disabled, the remnant rode straight into the smoke of 
the guns, and was lost to view." Out of six hundred 
and seven men, only one hundred and ninety-eight came 
back from that futile and fearless charge. Captain 
Nolan was killed at the first fire. 

On November 5, ten days after Balaklava, the battle 
of Inkerman was fought, the fiercest battle of the war. 
^'Men lay in swaths, as if mown down, insomuch that 
it was impossible to ride through the lines and mounds 
of the slam." The Russians lost twelve thousand men ; 
the Allies, something less than half that number. 

Winter was close at hand, and Sevastopol had not 
fallen, though severely attacked. November 14 a great 



110 LORD PALMER STON. 

storm in the Crimea carried away hospital tents, dashed 
to pieces twenty-one vessels in or near the harbor of 
Balaklava, and disabled eight others, all full of stores 
for the army ; clothing, food, surgical instruments, and 
ammunition. 

"At the close of the storm," writes Hamley, "the 
evening had brought snow, and henceforth the soil of 
the devastated camps afforded in no respect better lodg- 
ing than the rest of the surrounding wold. The sick, 
the wounded, and the weary, lay down in the mud. The 
trenches were often deep in water, and when night put 
an end to the rifle fire on both sides, the soldiers sat 
there, cramped, with their backs against the cold wet 
earth. 

"A still worse evil was that men seldom pulled off 
their wet boots, fearing they might not be able to draw 
them on again; their feet swelled in them, the circula- 
tion was impeded, and on cold nights frost-bite ensued, 
ending at best in mutilation." They had no fuel, and 
ate their salt pork uncooked. Fuel and food were at 
Balaklava, seven or eight miles away from the camps, 
but there was almost no means of transport. " In rear 
of each division, a scanty group of miserable ponies and 
mules, whose backs never knew what it was to be quit 
of the saddle, shivered, and starved, and daily died. . . . 
The sufferings of the animals were frightful. They were 
dying all round the camps, and all along the route to 
Balaklava, of cold, hunger, and fatigue, and as labor 
could not be bestowed in burying them, their carcasses 
formed a dismal feature in the desolate scenery. . . . 
Before the end of November the neighboring artillery 
camps were invaded by ravenous cavalry horses, gallop- 
ing madly in at the sound of the feeding-trumpet, and 



LOUD PALMERSTON. Ill 

snatching, undeterred by stick or stones, the hay and 
barley from the very muzzles of the right owners. Pain- 
ful it was to see the frenzy of the creatures in their first 
pangs of hunger, more painful to see their quiet misery 
in the exhaustion that succeeded. . . . The labor of toil- 
ing through the slough to Balaklava to fetch their own 
forage was so great that many horses sank and died in 
each journey." 

At the end of November there were eight thousand 
men in the hospital at Scutari. " The journey thither 
was an ordeal fatal to many. Lifted from the mud of 
the hospital tent, and wrapped in their wet blankets, the 
sick were placed on horses, a dismal troop ; some with 
closed eyes and livid cheeks, little other than mounted 
corpses; some moaning as they went, and almost ready 
in their weariness to relax their hold of the pommel, and 
bury their troubles in the mire beneath. . . . Bound for 
the great hospital of Scutari, the ghastly train would 
toil on, wading and slipping past the dying horses, the 
half-buried bullocks, the skeletons, and carcasses in vari- 
ous stages of decay." 

At Scutari they were dying like sheep. " But the sick 
flocked in faster than the dead were carried out, and 
still the dismal stream augmented till the hospitals over- 
flowed, while still faster poured the misery-laden ships 
down the Black Sea, feeding as they went the fishes with 
their dead." 

In January and February nearly fourteen thousand 
men were in the hospitals. All these things were 
told at home, and England was convulsed with anger 
and grief. Lord Aberdeen's ministry was charged 
with great mismanagement of the war. Somebody had 
mismanaged ; that was evident to the whole world. Lord 



112 LORD PALMEESTON. 

John Russell, who had turned the War Minister, Palmer- 
ston, out, now wrote to the Prime Minister urging the 
"necessity of having in the War Department a man, who, 
from experience of military details, from inherent vigor 
of mind, and from weight with the House of Commons, 
can be expected to guide the great operations of war 
with authority and success. There is only one person 
belonging to the government who combines these advan- 
tages." And that was Palmerston. The nation knew 
it. The Aberdeen ministry fell, and Lord Palmerston 
at seventy-one became the Prime Minister of England. 

He wrote his brother William : " A month ago, if any 
man had asked me to say what was one of the most 
improbable events, I should have said my being Prime 
Minister. Aberdeen was there, Derby was head of one 
great party, John Russell of the other, and yet in about 
ten days' time they all gave way like straws before the 
wind, and so here am I, writing to you from Downing 
Street, as First Lord of the Treasury. ... It is curious 
that the same man who summarily dismissed me three 
years ago, as unfit to be Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
should now have broken up a government because I was 
not placed in what he conceived to be the most important 
post in the present state of things. ... I am backed by 
the general opinion of the whole country." 

England was satisfied. She knew she had a strong 
man at the head, one who did not get excited ; whose 
judgment was remarkable ; who had tact and cheer and 
courage ; who knew how to control others because he 
controlled himself. " This calmness of spirit," says 
Shaftesbury, " was a grand ingredient of his mental and 
moral composition. It enabled him to endure much 
labor and face many responsibilities. . . . His nervous 



LORD PALMERiSTON, H 



o 



system was singularly well balanced ; his digestive organs 
never seemed at fault ; and at wliatsoever hour he retired 
to bed, he could fall asleep at once, and take, what he 
invariably insisted on, eight hours of repose.'' 

" He had a wonderful faculty/' says Ashley, " of dis- 
missing from his mind any matter, however anxious, 
when, for the time, it was disposed of ; and his disposi- 
tion allowed him to feel perfect confidence in his subor- 
dinates as long as they had done nothing to forfeit it. 
These two qualities were mighty aids to him in his work, 
as they not only assisted his power of concentration, 
which was already naturally strong, but freed him from 
that perpetual head-worry which has worn out so many 
busy men." 

Lord Brougham said : " I never knew a man whom it 
was more agreeable to act with." 

England at once sent quantities of stores of all kinds 
to the suffering soldiers in the Crimea. Florence Night- 
ingale, thanks to Mr. Sidney Herbert, Secretary at War, 
had been induced to go with her band of thirty-eight 
nurses to the hospitals in Scutari. The daughter of a 
rich country gentleman, she had devoted her leisure to 
sanitary questions, having studied in Continental institu- 
tions, especially in Pastor Fliedner's great Lutheran 
hospital at Kaiserwerth. 

The work done by Miss Nightingale was marvellous. 
Calm and unobtrusive, she soon won the respect and 
reverence of officers and privates. She was well called 
the "Angel of the Crimea." She restored order, ar- 
ranged for the proper cooking of food, reduced the death- 
rate by her wonderful management and skill, and 
became, as she deserved, the idol of the English nation, 
and an example to the women of all nations. 



114 LORD PALMERSTON. 

-Palinerston at once sent out a sanitary commission to 
the Crimea, and a superintendent of the commissariat, 
established a board to superintend the transport service, 
paid little attention to the disaffected in the House of 
Commons, and by his energy, vigor, and strength, put 
new life into the campaign. 

The great Cavour, perhaps remembering Palmerston's 
love for Italy, and probably wishing the aid of England 
in the future, had sent an army from Sardinia to help 
the Allies. It is said that his niece suggested the plan, 
and it proved important for Italy. The war went on. 
The dreadful winter with its sickness and death had 
passed. The Allies, even in their bitterest trials, had 
not been idle in the siege. Their lines had been drawn 
nearer and nearer to Sevastopol. 

On March 2, 1855, Emperor Nicholas died suddenly, of 
paralysis of the lungs, — it was said, and probabl}^ with 
truth, of a broken heart. Up to the time of his death, 
the Kussians had lost (so said Lord Lansdowne, obtain- 
ing it from authentic sources) 240,000 men. 

The great general on the Eussian side, Todleben, had 
been seriously wounded ; Field-Marshal Lord R-aglan 
died June 28. The fearless and stubborn leader of the 
French, after St. Arnaud died, Pelissier, "stood by the 
bedside for over an hour, crying like a child." 

Among the most important works to be stormed in front 
of Sevastopol were the Malakoff, the Redan, and the Mame- 
lon. The Malakoff was a tower, semi-circular, five feet 
thick, fifty feet in diameter, and twent3^-eight feet high, 
"with five guns on the top. On the Mamelon Hill and 
the Kedan were powerful batteries. These were again 
and again the scene of bloodiest conflict. So numerous 
and so violent w^ere the assaults, that in the six months 



LORD PALMERSTON. 115 

between the death of the Emperor in March, to August 
inchisive, 81,000 men had been killed in and around Sevas- 
topol. There was a cemetery on the north, well called 
" The Grave of the Hundred Thousand." 

There was no lack of bravery and heroism among the 
Allies or the Eussians. On June 7, 1855, the quarries 
in front of the Eedan were taken by the English, and the 
Mamelon by the French. June 18 a desperate but unsuc- 
cessful assault was made on the Malakoff and the Eedan. 
At the burial truce, a young Eussian officer said to one 
of the Allies' staff, with voice choked with emotion : 
'' Losses ! you don't know w^hat the word means ; you 
should see our batteries ; the dead lie there in heaps and 
heaps." 

September 8, a simultaneous attack Avas made upon 
the Malakoff and the Eedan. The French took the 
former. The English stormed the parapets of the 
Eedan, but were not able to hold the place, and it was 
decided to postpone the attack till the next day. Dur- 
ing the night the Eussians abandoned the city and 
burned it, like Moscow, also two line-of-battle ships in 
the harbor, where most of the rest were at the same time 
sunk. 

The siege of a year in length was over. The final 
sacrifice was a costly one. The French lost 7,567 men, 
the English 2,271, and the Eussians 12,913. On Sep- 
tember 10 the Eussian ship Vladimir came under flag 
of truce to ask for the wounded in the hospital. Two 
thousand desperately wounded men had lain there in 
their blood for two days and two nights without aid or 
nourishment, surrounded by the exploding forts and the 
burning buildings. Five hundred Avere still alive, and 
were conveyed to their ship. Thus horrible is war ! 



116 LOBD PALMERSTON. 

Austria now interceded for peace, and the Treaty of 
Paris was signed March 30, 1856, by which Sevastopol 
and other places taken by* the Allies were returned to 
Russia, and it was guaranteed that the Black Sea should 
be open to the mercantile marine of every nation, but 
closed to ships of war. The last condition of the treaty 
was abrogated by Prince Gortschakoff in 1870. The 
Queen offered Lord Palmerston the Garter in recognition 
of his services in carrying forward the war, and the 
country heartily indorsed the honor. 

Through the dreadful mutiny in India, 1857, Palmer- 
ston acted with energy and foresight, putting the right 
men in the right place, refusing all offers of aid from 
Prussia and Belgium, appreciating the soldiers who 
fought so heroically, saying, " There never was an 
instance in the history of the world of such splendid 
examples of bravery, of intrepidity, of resource, and 
self-reliance accomplishing such results as those which 
we have lately witnessed." 

Of the noble women who suffered in India at that 
time, he said, "Henceforth the bravest soldier may 
think it no disparagement to be told that his courage 
and his power of endurance are equal to those of an 
Englishwoman." 

The story of the treachery and cruelty of ISTana Sahib, 
told in Colonel G. B. Malleson's "Indian Mutiny," 
where the garrison at Cawnpore were allowed to depart 
for Allahabad, and as soon as they were in the thatch- 
covered boats, the boats were set fire to, and the occupants 
burned or shot, save about two hundred and fifty women 
and children who were imprisoned ; the arrival of the 
noble General Havelock at the gates of Cawnpore, who 
said to his soldiers, " With God's help, men, we shall 



LORD PALMEESTON. 117 

save them, or every man of us die in tlie attempt ; " 
the massacre by the sword of these two hundred and fifty 
women and children, and their bodies thrown one upon 
another into a deep w^ell, some still alive, until death came 
in kindness to end the horror, — this story has been often 
told, and can never be forgotten. When Havelock's men 
entered this wretched prison, and found the walls cov- 
ered with the blood of the \vives of English army offi- 
cers, and the floor strewn w^ith bits of clothes and 
tresses of hair of women and children, fury was 
mingled with their sadness, and though Nana Sahib 
escaped and w^as never heard of, India paid dearly for 
her brutality. 

The well was filled up, and a memorial chapel sur- 
rounded by a garden is now on the spot of the massacre. 

In the autumn of 1858 Palmerston visited the Em- 
peror of the French, and joined with horse and gun in 
the sports of the French Court. He wrote his brother-in- 
law : " The visits of the English to the Emperor serve 
as links to maintain and strengthen English alliance." 

For a few months Palmerston was out of ofiice, but 
soon returned. At his request nine millions were spent 
in fortifying the dockyards and arsenals, especially in 
the forts and lines around Portsmouth, Plymouth, 
Chatham, and Cork, though this measure was strongly 
opposed by Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
by Richard Cobden, and others. 

He replied to Mr. Cobden : " It would be very de- 
lightful if your Utopia could be realized, and if the 
nations of the earth would think of nothing but peace 
and commerce, and would give w^ quarrelling and fight- 
ing altogether. . . . But so long as other nations are ani- 
mated by these human passions, a country like England, 



118 LOUD PALMEBSTON. 

wealthy and exposed to attack, must, by necessity, be 
provided with the means of defence, and however dear 
these means may be, they are infinitely cheaper than the 
war which they tend to keep off." 

"If your dockyards are destroyed," he said, "your 
navy is cut up by the roots. ... If ever we lose the 
command of the sea, what becomes of this country? 
. . . Our wealth depends on the exportation of the 
products of our industry, which we exchange for those 
things which are necessary for our social position." 

In 1861 the Queen appointed Palmerston to the 
ancient and dignified of&ce of Lord Warden of the 
Cinque Ports, on the death of Lord Dalhousie. 

The Civil War in America began this year. For the 
American people, Ashley says Palmerston had " admira- 
tion and regard," though he thought some of her men in 
political life "deficient in honesty and offensive in 
tone." 

When Napoleon III. more than ever urged England to 
recognize the Southern States, he was always met with 
refusal. When it was urged that England should 
attempt to mediate, Palmerston judged rightly that such 
mediation "might be resented on both sides; and that 
jealousy of European, especially of English interference, 
in their internal affairs, might make them still more 
prone to reject our offer as impertinent. . . . We could 
not well mix ourselves up with the acknowledgment of 
slavery, and the principle that a slave escaping to a free- 
soil State should be followed, claimed, and recovered, 
like a horse or an ox." 

When the French minister at Washington suggested 
that England and France " compel the iSTorthern States 
to let the cotton come to Europe from the South," 



LORD PALMERSTOJSf. 119 

because there was dire distress among the operatives in 
the cotton-factories, Palmerston replied that "this 
would almost be tantamount to a war with the North/"^ 
and suggested to the Board of Trade that cotton could 
be obtained from Africa, India, Australia, the Fiji 
Islands, Syria, Egypt, and China. 

He said constantly, " Our best and true policy seems 
to be to go on as we have begun, and to keep quite clear 
of the conflict between North and South." 

In 1861 the Confederates, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, 
started for Europe, sent by Jefferson Davis to represent 
the South at Paris and London. On their way to South- 
ampton, England, in the English mail-steamer Trent, 
they were overtaken .by the United States war-steamer 
San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes commanding, seized, and 
carried prisoners to Boston. 

President Lincoln at once declared that the act of 
Captain Wilkes could not be sustained. He said, '- This 
is the very thing the British captains used to do. They 
claimed the right of searching American ships and 
carrying men out of them. That was the cause of the 
war of 1812. Now, we cannot abandon our principles. 
We shall have to give these men up, and apologize for 
what we have done." 

Palmerston, through his Foreign Secretary, Lord John 
Russell, demanded the liberation of the envoys within 
seven days ; his letter was toned down by the advice of 
the noble Prince Albert, who was then dying. The 
Confederate envoys were liberated January 1, 1862. 

English troops were at once sent to Canada, and when 
Cobden justly asked Palmerston why eight or ten 
thousand men had been sent, after the American minis- 
ter, Mr. Adams, had told the English that the act of 



120 LORD PALMERSTON. 

Wilkes was not sanctioned by the Washington Govern- 
ment, Palmerston replied that the best way to keep 
peace was to show that one was not afraid of war. 

It was a doubtful measure, for it produced bitter feel- 
ing on both sides, which showed itself when the Ala- 
bama claims were settled years after Palmerston was in 
his grave. Mr. Sanders well says, "The management 
of the Alabama affair by the Palmerston Government 
was a blunder." It came near involving in war two 
nations, the English and American, which, for a thou- 
sand reasons, ought to go forward helpfully and peace- 
fully in the world's progress. 

Another unfortunate matter was the joint expedition 
to Mexico, by Prance, England, and Spain, in 1861, to 
demand from Mexico payment of debts long neglected, 
and proper protection of Europeans. Spain sent six 
thousand men, Prance twenty-five hundred, with large 
re-enforcements soon after, and England one ship, two 
frigates, and seven hundred marines. 

Napoleon III. had pledged himself, like the two other 
Powers, not to interfere in the form of government 
established in Mexico. Palmerston had ceased to trust 
the Emperor, and frankly said so ; and as soon as it was 
found that the latter had already persuaded the Arch- 
duke Maximilian, brother of the Emperor of Austria, to 
accept the crown of monarchy which Kapoleon should 
impose upon the Mexicans, England and Spain withdrew 
from the expedition. 

America protested against this infringement of the 
Monroe doctrine, which forbids any European power 
to establish a monarchy on her soil. Napoleon 
expected that the South would triumph, and he should 
be at hand to make her his ally. The South did not 



LOBB PALMERSTON. 121 

triumph, and Napoleon was obliged to withdraw his 
soldiers from Mexico. 

The Mexican Empire lasted only a few weeks. The 
cultivated and brave Maximilian, in raising an army to 
defend himself from the existing government of Juarez, 
persuaded, it is said, by a French officer, issued a decree 
that all who resisted his authority in arms should be 
shot. Many Mexican officers, of course, resisted a 
foreign ruler, and were shot. 

When Juarez conquered, Maximilian, left to his fate, 
was arrested, condemned, and shot, in spite of the pro- 
test of the world. Poor Carlotta, the beautiful and 
lovely wife of Maximilian, was already a maniac in 
consequence of this ill-fated Napoleonic scheme. 

All this imbittered the North towards England and 
France, as it was felt, with truth, that the expedition 
was ungenerously undertaken at a critical hour in the 
life of the American Republic. 

Lord Palmerston was now an old man, past eighty. 
When he was seventy-nine, he went to Scotland to be 
installed Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. 
He received the freedom of the city of Edinburgh. As 
he sailed down the Clyde, thousands of working-men 
gathered on the banks to see the man who "lived to 
make England great." 

Palmerston did not forget to visit Peggie Forbes, who 
was a servant at Professor Dugald Stewart's when he was 
studying there sixty-two years before. She showed him 
an old box of tools which she had preserved all those 
years, because they belonged to "young Maister 
Henry." 

When suffering from rheumatism, so that he could not 
open a letter, Lord Palmerston still attended to his 



122 LORD PALMERSTON. 

duties in the House of Commons. He exercised daily 
on horseback, saying, " Every other abstinence will not 
make up for abstinence from exercise." 

He took cold while out driving in the fall of 1865, 
and died at Brocket, in Hertfordshire, — the place Avhich 
Lady Palmerston had inherited from her brother. Lord 
Melbourne, — at eleven o'clock, on the morning of 
October 18. Had he lived two days longer, he would 
have been eighty-one. He was buried October 27, in 
the north transept of Westminster Abbey, amid a great 
concourse of sorrowing people. 

Four years later his grave was opened, and his wife, 
Emily Mary, Viscountess Palmerston, was laid beside the 
man whose brilliant record in English politics she helped 
to make for twenty-six years. 

" No man," says Justin McCarthy, " since the death of 
the Duke of Wellington, had filled so conspicuous a 
place in the public mind. No man had enjoyed any- 
thing like the same amount of popularity. He died at 
the moment when that popularity had reached its very 
zenith." 

Lord Palmerston ruled England in troublous times. 
He made mistakes, and who does not ? but he was honest, 
brave, appreciative of other men, even-tempered, without 
hypocrisy, and sincere. 




EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 



"TTTE have, in my judgment, lost the first man of the 

V V age. I do not know whom I should place second 
on the list ; but there is no question as to whom I should 
place first of all. He was a man who, all round, was 
faithful to his Lord and Master, and his Master's work, 
in every respect. This is an especial and notable loss at 
the time when many men seem not to know the difference 
between truth and error. He has lived for the nation, 
and still more for his God." 

Thus spoke the Eev. Charles H. Spurgeon from his 
London pulpit, in the autumn of 1885, after the death of 
the Earl of Shaftesbury. 

Lord Beaconstield said in 1877, " The name of Lord 
Shaftesbury will descend to posterity as one who has, 
in his generation, worked more than any other individ- 
ual to elevate the condition, and to raise the character, 
of his countrymen." 

The London Times said, " The death of Lord Shaftes- 
bury, which all the English race is to-day deploring, 
removes one of the most honored figures of our con- 
temporary history. He is the most conspicuous recent 
instance of a man, who, born to great station and ample 
fortune, has deliberately devoted a long life neither to 
pleasure, nor to personal advancement, nor to political 

123 



124 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

power, but to furthering the material; moral, and reli- 
gious well-being of his countrymen." 

Antony Ashley Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftes- 
bury, born in Grosvenor Square, London, April 28, 1801, 
came of royal lineage. His mother. Lady Anne, was 
the- daughter of George, fourth Duke of Marlborough ; 
his father, Cropley Ashley Cooper, the sixth Earl of 
Shaftesbury. The Ashley family have held an impor- 
tant place in English history since the time of Henry 
the Second. 

The first Earl, Antony Ashley Cooper, was a member 
of the Parliament assembled by Oliver Cromwell, but 
after his death, aided in the restoration of Charles II., 
and belonged to the famous secret Cabinet of that mon- 
arch, called Cabal, from the initials of its members : 
Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauder- 
dale. In 1679 Ashley drew up and carried what was 
then known as " Lord Shaftesbury's Act," now called the 
" Habeas Corpus Act," which gives any one committed 
to prison the right to be brought before the Court of 
Queen's Bench or Common Pleas, to ascertain whether 
sent there justly or not. 

This important act is said, in the " Lives of Lord 
Chancellors," to have been carried by accident, after 
great opposition. Bishop Burnet says, " Lords Grey 
and Norris were named to be tellers. Lord Norris, 
being a man subject to vapors, was not at all times 
attentive to what he was doing. So, a very fat lord 
coming in. Lord Grey counted him for ten, as a jest at 
first; but seeing Lord Norris had not observed it, he 
went on w^ith his misreckoning of ten. So it was 
reported to the House, and decided that they who were 
for the bill were the majority, though it indeed went 
on the other side." 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 125 

For his efforts to exclude the Duke of York, after- 
wards James II., from the throne, the Lord High Chan- 
cellor, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was seized at his resi- 
dence, and committed to the Tower on a charge of high- 
treason. He was acquitted, to the great joy of the 
people, Avent to Holland, and died there in 1683. 

The first Earl of Shaftesbury married for his second 
wife, Lady Frances Cecil, a direct descendant from 
Thomas of Woodstock, fifth son of Edward III., and on 
her mother's side related to John of Gaunt. Her son 
became the second Earl of Shaftesbury. Thus the 
family are of the lineage of William the Conqueror. 

The second earl married, at the age of seventeen, the 
daughter of the first Duke of Rutland. The third earl, 
educated by John Locke, became an eloquent speaker in 
the House of Lords, and the author of " Characteristics 
of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times." 

The fourth earl was the intimate friend of Handel, 
who bequeathed to him a complete set of his oratorios 
in manuscript. The earl built at St. Giles's House, the 
family seat in Dorsetshire, a grotto of shells, stones, and 
ores brought from all parts of the world, costing at 
least ten thousand pounds. 

The fifth earl died without children, and his only 
brother, Cropley Ashley Cooper, became the sixth earl. 
For forty years he was "chairman of committees'^ in 
the House of Lords : an able man, but stern and unsym- 
pathetic. 

Of his ten children, the eldest son, Antony Ashley 
Cooper, became the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. 

The childhood of the latter was extremely unhappy. 
His father was absorbed in matters of state ; his mother 
in fashion and pleasure. His only confidant was an old 



126 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

servant, Maria Millis, who had been his mother's maid 
at Blenheim when she was a girl. She told him Bible 
stories as she held him on her knees. 

" She taught him a prayer," says Mr. Edwin Hodder 
in his intensely interesting Life of Shaftesbury, " the 
first prayer he ever learned ; a prayer which he never 
omitted to use through all the trying days that were 
soon to come upon him. And in his old age, especially 
in times of sickness, he very frequently found himself 
in his prayers repeating those simple words." 

At seven years of age young Ashley was sent to 
school at the Manor House, Chis wick. Here he was 
more unhappy even than at home. He said in his old 
age, "The memory of that place makes me shudder; it 
is repulsive to me even now. I think there never was 
such a wicked school before or since. The place was 
bad, wicked, filthy ; and the treatment was starvation 
and cruelty." 

Here the lad's first great sorrow came to him in the 
death of Maria Millis. She left him her watch, a hand- 
some gold one, and he never wore any other. He used 
often to say, " That was given to me by the best friend 
I ever had in the world. . . . She entered into rest 
when I was about seven years old ; but the recollection 
of what she said, and did, and taught, even to a prayer 
that I now constantly use, is as vivid as in the days 
that I heard her. 

" The impression was, and is still, very deep, that she 
made upon me ; and I must trace under God, very much, 
perhaps all, of the duties of my later life, to her 
precepts and her prayers. 

'•I know not where she was buried. She died, I 
know, in London ; and I may safely say that I have 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 127 

ever cherished her memory with the deepest gratitude 
and affection. She was a ' special Providence ' to me." 

Often, when his name had become a household word 
all over England, his eyes would fill with tears as he 
said, " God be praised for her, and for her loving faith- 
fulness ; we shall meet by and by in the house where 
there are many mansions." Noble Maria Millis ! her 
work as a servant was better than that of many a 
queen. 

The years between the ages of seven and twelve were 
pitiful to remember. Ashley feared his parents- as much 
as he feared the school authorities. " There was no 
sympathy of any kind between them, no exhibition in 
any way, of affection. His heart sank within him when 
the day came for him to go home for the holidays, and 
it sank within him when he had to return to school." 

At twelve he was removed from the Manor House 
School to Harrow, and placed in the house of Dr. 
Butler, the head master. Here, although there were 
some unique experiences, — one of the masters, being a 
bad sleeper, used to call up his boys to recite at four 
o'clock on a winter's morning, — the j^outh was happy. 

The sixth earl had meantime come into possession of 
the Shaftesbury estates, and Ashley spent his vacations 
at St. Giles's House, which in after years became his 
own. 

St. Giles is a few hours from London, reached by the 
Exeter line of the South-western Railway. The man- 
sion, built in the Elizabethan style, with Italian towers, 
is in the midst of a wooded park of four hundred and 
twenty-three acres. An avenue of trees leads from the 
east front to one of the entrance lodges, a distance of a 
mile. A stream winds through the park, forming a lake 



128 EAEL OB' SHAFTESBURY. 

of seven acres in extent, on the border of which is a 
summer-house, adorned Avith memorials of the poet 
Thomson, author of the " Seasons," a friend of the 
fourth earl. 

The boy, loving nature, found great delight in this 
country home. He explored every nook of Cranborne 
Chase, two miles from St. Giles, covering an area of 
eighteen square miles. As late as 1828 -it contained 
twelve thousand deer. The old town of Cranborne, 
with its manor-house belonging to the Marquis of Salis- 
bury, the churches of Cranborne and St. Giles, the peo- 
ple in the little villages, — all interested the hitherto 
lonely and sad young lord. 

The great mansion, too, was full of interest. The 
library, between sixty and seventy feet long, one of the 
most beautiful rooms in the house, had books on every 
side, from floor to ceiling ; the dining-room would ac- 
commodate forty guests ; the great hall, covered over, 
and lighted by an oval lantern, a gallery on three sides, 
with organ and grand piano, was elegant with works of 
art. Who could have foreseen that this hall would be 
used, in the years to come, for Gospel services on Sun- 
day evenings, where the family, the visitors, the servants, 
and the village folk would sing and pray together ? 

When Lord Ashley was between fourteen and fifteen 
years of age an incident occurred at Harrow which de- 
cided his life work. He heard great shouting and sing- 
ing of vulgar songs, on a side street, when presently four 
or five drunken men appeared, bearing the cof&n of a 
comrade, which in their staggering they let fall. The 
picture was a terrible one. From that moment he 
determined to devote his life to the poor and the friend- 
less. And he never changed that decision, amid all the 
allurements of fame or position. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 129 

Ashley left Harrow soon after lie became fifteen. He 
saj^s : " At about sixteen I went to reside with a clergy- 
man in Derbyshire who had married my first cousin. I 
was sent there, in fact, to be got out of the way, for the 
clergyman never professed that he was able to teach me 
anything, nor, indeed, did my father require of him any 
such services. I had a horse, and there were dogs be- 
longing to the house, that constituted my great amuse- 
ment, and a family in the neighborhood showed me 
abundant hospitality. 

" I remained there about two years, and perhaps no 
two years were ever so misspent. I hardly ever opened 
a book, and seldom heard anything that was worth 
hearing ; nevertheless, there were constantly floating in 
my mind all sorts of aspirations, though I never took a 
step to make their fulfilment possible. 

" My father had resolved to put me in the army, but 
he was dissuaded from that purpose by the influence, I 
believe, of a friend, of whose kind act I shall always 
think with the deepest gratitude." 

Ashley went to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1819, and 
in 1822 took a first-class in classics. He was diligent, 
persevering, ambitious, and made for himself a worthy 
record. 

When he was twenty-five, on November 16, 1826, he 
entered Parliament, as member for Woodstock. The 
following month he heard Canning speak; " the finest 
historical recollection of my life," he said. " Except the 
loftier flights of the Bible, I have never heard nor read 
such rousing eloquence, such sentiments, such language, 
— such a moment ! they almost maddened me with delight 
and enthusiasm — could not sleep for agitation — fever- 
ishly and indistinctly recollecting what I had heard." 



130 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

When Canning became Premier, he offered Lord Ash- 
ley a place in the Administration. Though very ambi- 
tious, and always regretting in his diary that he was not 
accomplishing more, he declined the offer, largely on 
account of his warm friendship for the Duke of Welling- 
ton, who had retired from the Cabinet when Canning 
came into power. Canning died in less than four months, 
and the Duke of Wellington soon after became Prime 
Minister. 

Lord Ashley was now made a Commissioner of the 
India Board of Control, which office he held for two 
years, till Earl Grey became Premier. At once he 
began to work earnestly for India, and this interest 
and labor continued while he lived. He urged improve- 
ments in horticulture and husbandry. " Take the article 
potato," he said; "it will give to Hindostan a second 
article of food; it will furnish them with a cheap and 
agreeable sustenance, to relieve the monotonous insipid- 
ity of their rice ; and it will become a resource in calami- 
tous times, when the season may have proved unfavorable 
to the staple subsistence of India." 

When sutteeism, the burning of widows at the death 
of their husbands, was brought before the India Board 
in 1828, Ashley thought it " most outrageous cruelty and 
wrong." " On saying so," says Lord Ashley, " I was put 
down at once as if I was a madman ; I was wondered at, 
for ever daring to mention such a thing. Well, my Lord 
William Bentinck was appointed to the command in 
India. My Lord William Bentinick thereupon, with a 
stroke of his pen, put the unnatural practice down. . . . 
If you appeal to the conscience, depend upon it the 
millions will go along with you," Sutteeism was declared 
illegal, December 14, 1829. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 131 

Other matters, too, were engaging the attention of 
the young member of Parliament. "A Bill to amend the 
Law for the Regulation of Lunatic Asylums " was brought 
forward in 1828. Insane persons had received most 
shameful treatment in the early part of the century. 
Says Robert Gardiner Hill, E. S. A., " Lunatics were 
kept constantly chained to walls in dark cells, and had 
nothing to lie upon but straw. The keepers visited 
them, whip in hand, and lashed them into obedience : 
they were also half drowned in ' baths of surprise,' and 
in some cases semi-strangulation was resorted to. The 
' baths of surprise ' were so constructed that the patients 
in passing over a trap-door fell in ; some patients were 
chained in wells, and the water made to rise until it 
reached their chins. One horrible contrivance was a 
rotatory chair, in which patients were made to sit, and 
were revolved at a frightful speed. The chair was in 
common use. Patients, women as well as men, were 
flogged at particular periods, chained and fastened to 
iron bars, and even confined in iron cages." 

Young Lord Ashley determined to see for himself the 
condition of the insane. He visited asylums in London 
and in the provinces ; he saw lunatics chained to their 
beds, and left from Saturday afternoon to Monday noon 
without attendance, only bread and water within their 
reach ; the violent and quiet were shut up together in 
damp, dark, filthy cells ; and what astonished him most 
of all, says Mr. Hodder, " was that people knew and 
cared absolutely nothing about this state of things." 

He made his first important speech in Parliament on 
this subject, and materially helped to pass a bill, in 
July, 1828, by which power was transferred from the 
College of Physicians to fifteen Metropolitan Commis- 



132 EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

sioners appointed by the Home Secretary, and the 
requirement of two medical certificates for private pa- 
tients. Lord Ashley was made chairman of the commis- 
sion, and held the position for fifty-seven years, till his 
death. 

Seventeen years after the passage of the bill, a per- 
manent lunacy commission was effected, with six paid 
commissioners at salaries of £1,500 each. The chairman 
received no salary. 

Lord Ashley wrote in his diary, after making his first 
speech in the House of Commons : " By God's blessing, 
my first effort has been for the advancement of human 
happiness. May I improve hourly. . . I prayed most 
earnestly, as I ever do, for aid and courage. Though I 
did not please myself, I found that the House was de- 
lighted. Cheers and compliments were abundant. I 
thanked God repeatedly ; hastened home to throw myself 
on my knees in gratitude." 

Seventeen years later he wrote : " Never have I suf- 
fered more anxiety than on these lunacy bills. I dream 
every night, and pass, in my visions, through every 
clause, and confuse the whole in one great mass. It is 
very trying — perpetual objections, perpetual correspond- 
ence, perpetual doubt." - 

Still later he wrote : " Seventeen years of labor and 
anxiety obtained the Lunacy Bill in 1845, and five 
years' increased labor since that time have carried it 
into operation. It has effected, I know, prodigious 
relief, has forced the construction of many public 
asylums, and greatly multiplied inspection and care." 

He was never applied to in vain to assist in cases 
where it was possible that patients were wrongfully shut 
up in asylums ; he pleaded the cause of pauper lunatics, 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 133 

and criminal lunatics ; he addressed great public meet- 
ings, and lie forced the House to become interested. 
He found from statistics that from seventy-five to eighty 
per cent of the insane may be cured, if treatment is 
given in the first twelve months 5 only five per cent, 
if given later. If he had done no other work for human- 
ity, Lord Ashley would have fulfilled his early desire : 
" I am bound to try what God has put into me for the 
benefit of Old England." 

In 1861 Lord Ashley desired to establish an asylum 
for the insane of the middle classes. At the meeting at 
which he spoke, Mr. Thomas Hollo way became deej)ly 
interested, and resolved to give his fortune for the bene- 
fit of the insane. He visited Lord Ashley, and was dis- 
suaded by him from giving all of his money to one object, 
as he had intended. Mr. Holloway died in 1883, and 
two years after, June 15, 1885, the Holloway Sanatarium, 
costing £300,000, was opened at Virginia Water, by the 
Prince of Wales ; and in 1886 that magnificent insti- 
tution, the Ladies' College at Egham, founded at a cost 
of £450,000. 

During all these early years, Lord Ashley was devoted 
to the study of science. He also learned Welsh and 
Hebrew. "Nothing has ever given me more delight and 
satisfaction," he said at this time in his diary, " than my 
study of the Welsh language." He was the friend of 
Sir James South, the astronomer, and often studied the 
heavens with him. He was also the friend of Southey, 
and they corresponded till the • poet-laureate died. 
Southey told Ashley, "that he had six or seven different 
reading-desks in his stud}^, with a different book or 
theme on each ; on one a magazine article ; on another, 
a poem ; on another, a study in histor}^ ; on another, a 



134 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

letter to a friend ; and so on. When he tired of the one 
he went to the other, and found himself so refreshed by 
the change, that he was able to be in his study from 
early in the morning till late at night, going to each 
subject with fresh zest and vigor." 

He knew. Walter Scott, and he said: "To know him 
was to love him. The two greatest characters of the 
last century and of the present, perhaps of any one, are, 
in my mind, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Walter 
Scott ; and they have many points of resemblance, none 
more striking than their simplicity." 

Eeferring to these days. Lord Ashley said in his old 
age : " In early life I was passionately devoted to science, 
so much so that I was almost disposed to pursue science 
to the exclusion of everything else. It passed away, and 
I betook myself to literature, hoping that I should not 
only equal, but that I should rival, many in mental ac- 
complishments. Other things were before me, and other 
things passed away, because, do what I would, I was 
called to another career; and now I find myself, at the end 
of a long life, not a philosopher, not an author, but sim- 
ply an old man who has endeavored to do his duty in that 
state of life to which it has pleased God to call him." 

And the world has been made the better, because the 
noble Earl of Shaftesbury lived simply " to do his duty." 

Ashley had reached his twenty-eighth year. With an 
ardent, earnest nature, it was not strange that his heart 
should long for a reciprocal affection. He speaks in his 
journal of an attachment during a residence in Vienna, 
which he did not think it wise to continue. At twenty- 
six, while at Aberystwith, Wales, he wrote : " If I could 
find the creature I have invented, I should love her with 
a tenderness and truth unprecedented in the history of 



EAIiL OF SHAFTESBURY. 135 

wedlock. I pray for her abundantly. God grant me this 
purest of blessings." 

Earl Granville says of this period of Ashley's life : 
" He was then a singularly good-looking man, with abso- 
lutely nothing of effeminate beauty. He had those manly 
good looks, and that striking presence, which, I believe, — 
though, of course, inferior by hundreds of degrees to the 
graces of mind and of character, — help a man more than 
we sometimes think, and they helped him when he en- 
deavored to inspire his humble fellow-countrymen with 
his noble and elevated nature. Those good looks he 
retained to the end of his life. 

"At the time I am speaking of, he was seeking to 
marry that bright and beautiful woman who afterwards 
threw so much sunshine on his home." 

Another says : " Lord Ashley possesses, perhaps the 
palest, purest, stateliest exterior of any man j^ou will see 
in a month's perambulation of Westminster ; indeed, it 
would be difficult to imagine a more complete beau ideal 
of aristocracy. . . . 

" His forehead has also much of the marble about it ; 
his curly dark hair, in its thick masses resembles that 
of a sculptured bust, and his fine brow and features are 
distinctly yet delicately cut. . . . The whole countenance 
has the coldness, as well as the grace, of a chiselled one, 
and expresses precision, prudence, and determination in 
no common degree. . . . 

"As pieces of composition, his addresses are faultless ; 
every sentence is perfect in its form and correct in its 
bearing. His delivery is fluent, but not rapid ; his voice 
fine and rich in tone." 

He was married June 10, 1830, to Emily, daughter of 
the fifth Earl Cowper, and niece of Lord Melbourne, the 



136 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Premier. A singularly happy wedded life resulted. He 
always preferred, as he said, " her happiness, even for 
an hour, to whole years of my own. . . . No man, I am 
sure, ever enjoyed more happiness in his married life. 
God be everlastingly praised." 

" In 1831 Lord Ashley was chosen to contest the county 
of Dorset, for a seat in Parliament. His opponent was 
Hon. William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, whom he de- 
feated after a fifteen-days struggle. The expenses of the 
election, for horses, taverns, carriages, and the like, reached 
the enormous sum of £15,600 ! This Lord Ashley, though 
at the time very much straitened by it, was obliged to 
pay. No wonder that this evil was deplored by every- 
body, and was largely done away by the passage in 1854 
of the Corrupt Practices Act, providing for publication 
of accounts after parliamentary elections, and restraining 
candidates from paying any expenses except through 
authorized agents. 

And now a great work begun for Lord Ashley in Par- 
liament; a work with which his name will always be 
associated, — factory legislation. 

Through inventions in machinery, especially by James 
Hargreaves, with his " spinning-jenny," and Sir Pichard 
Arkwright, a great demand for child-labor was created. 
Large numbers of children were taken out of the work- 
houses of London and Edinburgh, packed in wagons, and 
sent to Nottingham, Manchester, and elsewhere. Under 
the "apprentice system," pauper children were bound by 
churchwardens and overseers of parishes to mill-owners, 
to work from five years of age to twenty-five. 

" A horrible traffic," in the words of Mr. Hodder, " had 
sprung up ; child-jobbers scoured the country for the pur- 
pose of purchasing children to sell them again into the 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 137 

bondage of factory slaves. The waste of liuman life in 
the manufactories to which the children were consigned 
was simply frightful. Day and night the machinery was 
kept going, one gang of children working it by day, and 
another set by night ; while, in times of pressure, the 
same children were kept working day and night by re- 
morseless taskmasters. . . . 

" Their first labors generally consisted in picking up 
loose cotton from the floor. This was done amid the 
burring din of machinery, in an average heat of 70° to 
90° Fahrenheit, and in the fumes of the oil with which 
the axles of twenty thousand wheels and spindles were 
bathed. 

" ' For all day tlie wheels are droning, turning ; 
Their wind comes in our faces, 
Till our hearts turn, our heads with pulses burning, 
And the walls turn in their places.' 

" Sick, with aching backs and inflamed ankles from the 
constant stooping, with fingers lacerated from scraping 
the floors, parched and suffocated by the dust and flue, 
the little slaves toiled from morning till night. If they 
paused, the brutal overlooker, who was responsible for a 
certain amount of work being performed by each child 
under him, urged them on by kicks and blows. 

" When the dinner-time came, after six hours labor, it 
was only to rest for forty minutes, and to partake of 
black bread and porridge, or occasionally some coarse 
Irish bacon. 

" In process of time more important employment was 
given to them, involving longer hours, and harder work. 
Lost time had to be made up by overwork ; they were 
required every other day to stop at the mill during the 



138 HARL OF SHAFTESBUUY. 

dinner hour, to clean the frames ; and there was scarcely 
a moment of relaxation for them until Sunday came, 
when their one thought was to rest. Stage by stage they 
sank into the profoundest depths of wretchedness. In 
weariness they often fell upon the machinery, and almost 
every factory child was more or less injured ; through 
hunger, neglect, over-fatigue, and poisonous air, they died 
in terrible numbers, swept off by contagious fevers." 

When they perished by the machinery, a coroner's in- 
quest was rarely held. They worked fourteen or more 
hours a day, with no education, and the merest pittance 
for wages. 

Something had been done by Sir Eobert Peel, him- 
self a mill-owner, and others, to do away with the 
"apjorentice system. '^ The hours had been somewhat 
shortened, but the toil was excessive. 

Among those whose hearts had been stirred by the 
overwork of women and children, was Michael Thomas 
Sadler, M. P. for Newark. He introduced his famous 
" Ten Hours Bill " into the House of Commons in 1831, 
but lost his seat the following year by the Reform Bill 
of 1832, which disfranchised Newark. 

The mill-owners were incensed at the idea of women 
and children working only ten hours a day. As they 
had long worked for twelve and more, it was believed 
that by the loss of two hours' labor, profits would be 
so lessened that mills must close. 

The operatives were heart-broken that Sadler could no 
longer fight their battles for them. Rev. G. S. Bull was 
sent to London to confer with Lord Ashley to see if he 
would move Sadler's bill. 

Lord Ashley says in his journal, "I can perfectly 
recollect my astonishment and doubt and terror at the 
proposition." 



^AliL OF SBAFTESBUnr. 139 

He asked till the next morning to reflect upon the 
subject. If he undertook the cause of the working- 
people, it meant hate, worry, toil, the abandonment of 
all literary pursuits, as there would be no leisure, and 
perhaps a lifetime spent among the poor. He laid the 
matter before his young wife, and asked her judgment. 

" It is your duty," she said, " and the consequences 
we must leave. Go forward, and to victory ! " 

Mr. Bull wrote back to the Lancashire and Yorkshire 
committees : " His lordship says, ' It seems no one else 
will undertake it, so I will ; and without cant or hypoc- 
risy, which I hate, I assure you I dare not refuse the 
request you have so earnestly pressed. I believe it is 
my duty to God and to the poor, and I trust He will 
support me. Talk of trouble ! what do we come to 
Parliament for ? ' 

'-I have just left his lordship, and find him more 
determined than ever. He says it is your cause ; if you 
support him, he will never flinch." 

And Lord Ashley never did flinch, through the twenty 
and more years in which he labored night and day for 
the factory operatives. 

He at once began to ascertain for himself the true 
condition of the laborers. '^ In factories," he says, " I 
examined the mills, the machinery, the homes, and saw 
the workers and their work in all its details. In collieries, 
I went down into the pits. In London, I went into 
lodging-houses and thieves' haunts, and every filthy 
place. I used often to hear things from the poor suf- 
ferers themselves which were invaluable to me. I got 
to know their habits of thought and action, and their 
actual wants. I sat and had tea and talk with them 
hundreds of times." 



140 EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Southey had begged him not to go among the suffer- 
ing, lest the " distressful recollections be burned in," and 
Lord Ashley, never in robust health, be permanently 
injured; but nothing could deter him. 

Once in Bradford, in his investigations, he says, "I 
asked for a collection of cripples and deformities. In a 
short time more than eighty were gathered in a large 
courtyard. They were mere samples of the entire mass. 
I assert without exaggeration that no power of lan- 
guage could describe the varieties, and I may say the 
cruelties, in all these degradations of the human form. 
They stood or squatted before me in the shapes of the 
letters of the alphabet. This was the effect of pro- 
longed toil on the tender frames of children at early 
ages." 

The country soon became in commotion over the sub- 
ject. Eighteen hundred pages of evidence of cruelty 
and poverty and overwork had been collected and laid 
before Parliament. It was found that of the nearl}^ four 
hundred thousand operatives in cotton and other mills, 
over half were women and girls. In factory districts 
as many persons "died under twenty years of age as 
under forty in any other part of England." In Man- 
chester, half of the population died under three years 
of age, so enfeebled were the mothers. 

To delay the question until the indignation of the 
people should subside, the mill-owners asked for an- 
other commission of inquiry. This Lord Ashley opposed, 
as useless, but it was granted. At Leeds, Bradford, 
and other places where the commissioners sat, three 
or four thousand ragged and dirty little children, as 
they came out of the mills, attended by as many as 
fifteen thousand spectators, would appear before the 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 141 

commissioners, to show by their presence that a second 
inquiry was needless. The first commission had told 
the real condition, and at last the second commission 
only confirmed it. 

After great exertion and painful investigation, Lord 
Ashley brought forward his Ten Hours Bill. 

He said in his speech, " If the House would not 
adopt the bill, they must drive him from it, as he would 
not concede a single step. He most positively declared 
that as long as he had a seat in that House, as long as 
God gave him health and a sound mind, no efforts, no 
exertions, should be wasted on his part to establish the 
success of the measure. If defeated in the present 
session, he would bring it forward in the next, and so 
on in every succeeding session till his success was 
complete." 

His bill was defeated in July, 1833, but a Govern- 
ment Bill was passed with some good features. It for- 
bade the employment of children under nine, and 
women and young j)ersons were not to work more than 
twelve hours a day. 

As nothing more could be done at that time, Lord 
Ashley, needing rest and change, took his wife and little 
son Antony to Italy. He had been over the ground ten 
years before, but all was doubly interesting to him, 
now that his wife was with him. In Borne he records 
in his diary, concerning an evening at a party, Decem- 
ber 27 : " Minny looked heavenly, and a foreigner 
requested to be introduced to ^ Mademoiselle Ashley.' 
Is it wrong to be so entirely proud of and happy in 
one's wife's beauty ? But surely there is nothing so 
pretty and fascinating as my Min." 

On the road to Loretto, in descending a hill, one of the 



142 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

horses attached to their hired carriage fell. The drivers 
swore, and beat the horse, kicked its head and sides, 
and insisted on reharnessing it to the carriage, though 
Ashley protested that the horse was ill, and that he 
would have the drivers arrested. On arriving at 
Loretto, Lord Ashley told the postmaster, who shrugged 
his shoulders, and would not interfere. He sought out 
the police, and after going from secretary to president, 
secured the arrest and imprisonment of the drivers for 
a time. It was but natural that later Lord Ashley 
should become president of the Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals. 

In June, 1834, Ashley visited his beloved Oxford to 
witness the installation of the Duke of Wellington as 
chancellor. " For an hour (it is now eleven o'clock)," 
he writes in his journal, "I have lounged about the 
quadrangle of Christ Church ; every inch of it seems 
holy. . . . How much more I should enjoy this retire- 
ment, were Minny with me ! Why is it that I cannot 
bear the shortest separation from her ? In fact, nothing 
is so delightful to the heart as the contemplation of 
innocence and purity ; and hence it is that I feel, in 
absence from her, the loss of an unearthly pleasure. . . . 

" June 11. Yesterday was the anniversary of our 
wedding. Mark it with the red letters of joy, hope, 
and gratitude. If men would all base their love upon 
esteem, and their esteem upon religion, and their reli- 
gion upon affectionate Christianity, marriage would 
prove a twenty-fold source of earthly happiness, and 
surety for heaven." 

When Sir Kobert Peel became Premier in the winter 
of 1834, Ashley was made a Lord of the Admiralty. 
As under Wellington on the India Board, so here, 
he showed himself accurate, pains-taking, and faithful. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 143 

Through the years 1835 to 1838, the operatives 
were agitating for relief in factory legislation, as the 
Government Bill of 1833 was not enforced. Letters 
poured in upon Lord Ashley. One correspondent com- 
plained, that, as the workers were summoned to the 
mills by a horn, it was "very disagreeable to have 
attention drawn to the hardships of the factory chil- 
dren at three, four, five, and six in the morning," and 
he hoped " the nuisance would be punishable by pen- 
alty." The horn was doubtless quite as disagreeable to 
the factory children at " three and four " in the morning 
as to the complainant. 

The Factory Bill of 1833 forbade the employment of 
children under thirteen for more than nine hours a day. 
This clause the mill-owners were determined to have 
repealed, that they might make greater profits. Lord 
Ashley declared that this would "legalize the slavery of 
some forty thousand children, for the most part females. 
A more faithless proposal was never made to the 
integrity and understanding of a legislature." 

He showed how boys had been made to work in the 
foul cellar of a Yorkshire factory for thirty-four hours 
in succession, the air so bad that adults tied handker- 
chiefs round their mouths before going into the place. 
He showed how factory inspectors permitted attendance 
at Sunday-school to be included in the twelve hours 
education per week required by law. 

He showed that half the children working under 
surgeons' certificates as thirteen, were scarcel}^ eleven 
or twelve ; that in convictions for breaking the laws 
against poor children, the fines were only a lialf-crown, 
which millionnaires could easily pay ; that inspectors 
took two years to go their rounds, and gave notice of 



144 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

each visit, that matters might be in proper condition on 
their arrival ; that clocks were tampered with to rob the 
children of their time. Alas, how terrible is greed ! 

Lord Ashley, in a most able speech in the House of 
Commons, said : " The evil was daily on the increase, 
and was yet unremedied, though one-fifth part of the 
time the House had given to the settlement of the 
question of negro slavery would have been sufficient to 
provide a remedy. What that House, in its wisdom 
and mercy, decided, that forty-five hours in a week was 
a term of labor long enough for an adult negro, he thought 
it would not have been unbecoming that spirit of lenity 
if they had considered whether sixty-nine hours a week 
were not too many for the children of the British 
Empire. ... If they would give no heed to that fierce 
and rapid cancer that was gnawing the very vitals of 
the social system ; if they were careless of the growth of 
an immense population, plunged in ignorance and vice, 
which neither feared God nor regarded man, then he 
warned them that they must be prepared for the very 
worst results that could befall an empire." 

Charles Dickens, always a warm admirer of Ashley, 
went into the factory districts to see for himself, and 
" was disgusted and astonished beyond all measure." 
But most persons were bitterly hostile to all legislative 
action, thinking it an interference between labor and 
capital. 

Happily for humanity, ideas about the right and duty 
of the State have changed. Knowing that decent houses 
and properly ventilated workshops are essential to the 
physical well-being, that education is essential to the 
mental well-being, and both are necessary to good citi- 
zenship, the State now wisely exercises its supervision. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 145 

The London Times took the side of Lord Ashley 
against the Melbourne governmentj declaring that "all 
the representations and remonstrances made to the 
Ministers upon the subject had been treated with total 
neglect and contempt." 

In June, 1838, the vote was taken upon the resolution 
introduced by Lord Ashley, to make effective the bill of 
1833, and he was defeated. It did, indeed, seem evident 
that few cared for the poor or the workers. 

In the autumn of this year. Lord Ashley and family 
passed several days at Windsor Castle, on a visit to the 
Queen. " We have the mornings to ourselves," he writes 
in his journal, " and the beauty and magnificence of the 
place, the fineness of the weather, and the comfort of 
the apartments, enable us to pass the time very agree- 
ably. . . . 

" From the hour she became Queen to the present day, 
I and mine have received one invariable succession of 
friendly and hospitable acts, bestowed with a degree of 
ease, good-humor, and considerateness that Avould be 
captivating in any private person. The hours were ten 
o'clock for breakfast, unless it were preferred to break- 
fast in one's own room ; two o'clock for luncheon ; a 
ride, or a drive, at three o'clock, for two hours or so ; 
dinner at half-past seven. A military band at dinner, 
and the Queen's band after dinner, filled up, and very 
necessarily, the pauses of conversation. W^e sat till 
half-past eleven at a round table, and then went to bed." 

It was fortunate for the Queen that she had such a 
Christian friend as Ashley ; it was fortunate for Ashley 
that he had such a Christian queen. 

Tired with Parliamentary labors, in August Lord 
and Lady Ashley went to Scotland. They visited Sir 



146 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Archibald Alison, author of the " History of Europe," 
the Duchess of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle, and 
the Earl and Countess of Tankerville at Chillingham 
Castle. Ashley did not forget to go into iron-works? 
dyeing establishments, calico-printing works, and other 
places of labor. He talked with the people in the fields, 
where he said, " One shilling a day to the women, and 
fifteen pence to the men, for twelve hours at harvest time, 
is considered sufficient ! " 

They visited Fountains Abbey, "by common consent 
the finest ruin in England, infinitely graceful, infinitely 
touching ; " and Eipon Cathedral. He was proud and 
glad that " Minny " was with him. "It was a wonder- 
ful accomplishment," he says in his journal, "and a most 
bountiful answer to one's progress, to have obtained a 
wife, in the highest matters and the smallest details, 
after my imagination and my heart." 

Of Chatsworth, the princely' residence of the Duke 
of Devonshire, Ashley writes: "Everything magnificent, 
and half of it unnecessary, even for the just display of 
the dignity suited to the rank and fortune of the propri- 
etor. ... It is probably the last great effort of hereditary 
wealth, of aristocratical competition with the splendor 
of kings. Acquired properties can never be so magnifi- 
cent, either in extent or in display ; hereditary properties 
are undergoing diminution, and the custom, moreover, 
of primogeniture (the sole means of retaining the unity 
of possessions) has reached the full, and is now upon 
the wane." 

In 1840 another subject claimed Lord Ashley's mind 
and heart, — the miseries of chimney-sweeps. The evil 
had been talked about for a century ; Jonas Hanway, a 
fellow-worker with E.obert Eaikes in founding Sunday 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 147 

schools, wrote letters to master chimney-sweepers, beg- 
ging them to be humane. In 1817 Parliament was 
induced to aj)point a select committee to investigate the 
subject. The results shocked the people. It was found 
that children had been sold by their parents, or stolen, 
or apprenticed by poor-law guardians, and forced to go 
up narrow chimneys by beating or pricking the soles of 
the feet, or applying lighted straw. 

A bill was finally passed, in 1834, forbidding that 
children under ten should be forced to go up chimneys ; 
and providing that flues should measure not less than 
fourteen inches by nine ; that children should not be sent 
up a chimney when it was on fire, for the sake of ex- 
tinguishing it. Lord Kenyon and others opposed this 
mild bill, as it seemed better that a few pauper children 
should smother than that a house should be burned. 

Lord Ashley began to investigate, and that meant 
thorough work. He went to see the masters ; he saw the 
climbing boys at their labors ; he made provision for 
life for some of the poor little creatures whom he res- 
cued. Children of five and six years were employed, 
even some four and a half years old. They were sent up 
naked, and often passed the night naked on a soot-heap. 

Ashley was greatly aided in his labors for the sweeps 
by Mr. Stevens, the Secretary to the Hand-in-Hand 
Insurance Office. He brought the insurance companies 
to see the wisdom and humanity of using machines 
instead of human beings, for cleaning chimneys. 

The Act to punish with fine all who should compel, or 
knowingly allow, any one under the age of twenty-one 
years to ascend or descend a chimney, or enter a flue, 
for the purpose of sweeping or cleaning it, was finally 
passed, after strong opposition by the Lords. It received 
the royal assent, August 7, 1840. 



148 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

It had been difficult to pass the Act ; it was still more 
difficult to enforce it. Eleven years later another bill 
for the relief of the sweeps passed the Lords, was read 
over in Commons, and dropped. Two years later, when 
Ashley, then become Earl of Shaftesbury, tried to get a 
bill passed, and said he " did not believe that all the 
records of all the atrocities committed in this country or 
any other, could equal the records of cruelty, hardship, 
vice, and suffering, which, under the sanction of the law, 
had been inflicted on this helpless and miserable race," 
Lord Beaumont spoke of the bill as " a pitiful cant of 
pseudo-philanthropy ! " 

The bill was referred to a select committee, who re- 
ported it inexpedient to proceed further. Shaftesbury 
took up the matter again in 1854. The bill passed the 
Lords, and was thrown out in Commons. The next year 
a similar bill was read once in the Lords and abandoned. 

In 1861, in 1863, and in 1864, Shaftesbury pleaded 
their cause again. He showed how their day's work 
began often at two in the morning; they would often 
faint from terror, exhaustion, and bad air, and not infre- 
quently were smothered. They had to move up and 
down the chimneys by pressing every joint against the 
hard brick surface ; " and to prevent their hands and 
knees from streaming with blood, the children were 
rubbed with brine before a hot fire to harden the flesh." 

They were seldom washed, and every pore of the skin 
being choked with soot, many had a frightful disease, 
called chimney-sweeper's cancer. They were ignorant 
as well as poor. Of three hundred and eighty-four boys 
examined by the Commission of Inquiry, in 1864, only 
six could write, and but twenty-six could read, and those 
imperfectly. 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 149 

Shaftesbury was not discouraged, though he wrote in 
his journal, " Have suffered actual tortures through soli- 
citude for prevention of these horrid cruelties." 

In 1864 he secured the passage of an Act making it 
punishable with imprisonment to send a boy up a chim- 
ney to clean it. Eight years went by, and still the 
dreadful system endured. In 1872 a boy was suffocated 
in a flue in Staffordshire. In 1873 a child seven and a 
half was killed in a flue at Washington. In February, 
1875, George Brewster, a lad of fourteen, was suffocated 
in a flue at Cambridge; the master was sentenced to 
six months at hard labor for causing the boy's death. 

On April 20, 1875, Shaftesbury gave notice of a new 
bill in the House of Lords, and a month later spoke on 
it. He says : " Was much disheartened at outset. House 
very inattentive — had twice to implore their condescen- 
sion to hear me. At last they listened, and so far as 
their undemonstrative natures would allow, applauded 
me. . . . Yet by His grace I have stirred the country. 
The Times (may the paper be blessed) has assisted me 
gloriously." 

The bill was passed that session, and chimney-sweep- 
ing by children was done away. For thirty years the 
noble Earl had plead and agonized for the sufferers, and 
at last the work was accomplished. 

When Sir Eobert Peel came into power, in 1841, he 
urged Lord Ashley to take office, first in the royal 
household, and then in the Cabinet, but he declined 
both offers. Ashley said in his diary : " I will never 
place myself in any situation where I shall not be as 
free as air to do everything that I may believe to be 
conducive to the happiness, comfort, and welfare of that 
portion of the working-classes who have so long and 



150 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

confidingly intrusted to me the care of their hopes and 
interests. . . . Peel will succumb to the capitalists, and 
reject my Factory Bill. No human power, therefore, 
shall induce me to accept office. I will surrender inter- 
est and ambition to the cause ; I will persevere in it, 
God helping me, through storm and sunshine ; I will 
commit all to Christ, and, trusting in Him, I shall never 
be confounded." 

He told Peel, "I am at this moment, no doubt un- 
wittingly, the representative of the whole aristocracy in 
respect of the operatives : should I deceive them, they 
will never henceforward believe that there exists a single 
man of station or fortune who is worthy to be trusted." 

Mr. Philip Grant says, in his " History of Factory 
Legislation," "The sacrifice thus made can only be ap- 
preciated by those who best understood the pecuniary 
position of this noble-minded man. He had at that 
time a large and increasing family, with an income not 
equal to many of our merchants' and bankers' servants, 
and a position as the future representative of an ancient 
and aristocratic family to maintain. 

" By this step, political power, social ties, family com- 
forts, nay, everything that was calculated to forward 
the ease and comfort of himself, and in some degree of 
his family, Avere laid down at the feet of the factory 
children of these districts, and freely given up, for the 
sake of the sacred cause of which, he had become the 
leader." 

Lord Ashley took an active part in discussions on the 
Tractarian movement, being opposed to it. German 
Rationalism had come into English thought ; the Church 
of England had become cold and formal ; and a few per- 
sons at Oxford University, like the Rev. E. B. Pusey and 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 151 

the E-ev. John Henry Newman, desiring a deeper piety 
in the country, resolved to qnicken the Church. " Tracts 
for the Times" were issued, which were Ritualistic or 
High Church in their tendency, giving emphasis to the 
doctrines of Apostolic Succession, Priestly Absolution, 
Baptismal Eegeneration, and the like. Those accepting 
these views were termed Tractarians. No. 90 of these 
tracts gave great offence. It was written by Newman, 
and was designed to show that much Romish doctrine 
could be held while at the same time one subscribed to 
the Thirty-nine Articles. The discussion led to the res- 
ignation, by Newman, of the vicarage of St. Mary's, 
Oxford, and to his going into the Church of Rome, in 
1845. 

In 1840 Lord Ashley had asked that a commission be 
appointed to investigate the condition of factory children 
besides those in cotton-mills ; also children in mines 
and collieries. He knew that some of the lace-mills 
in Nottingham were open all night, and children were 
detained, to be ready when wanted. They lay on the 
floor, exhausted, waiting for their turn to come. In the 
silk manufactories, little girls of six and seven were 
employed, who had to be placed on stools to reach their 
work. Children worked fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen 
hours. Their constitutions were ruined, and they became 
mothers to a puny race, if even they lived to mother- 
hood. 

Ashley investigated the condition of children em- 
ployed in the. manufacture of earthenware, in pin and 
needle making, iron-works, glass-trade, calico-printing, 
tobacco warehouses, button factories, bleaching and paper 
mills. He wrote articles in the reviews, and spoke at 
large meetings. He writes sadly in his journal: "No 



152 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

stir as yet in behalf of my 'Children's Employment 
Commission.' I cannot discern how, hnmanly speaking, 
I have ever made any progress at all. To whom should 
I have naturally looked for the chief aid ? Why, un- 
doubtedly, to the clergy, and especially those of the trad- 
ing districts. Quite the reverse. . . . There are grand 
and blessed exceptions, thank God for them ! Bicker- 
steth is a jewel, — a ' jewel of the first water.' . . . And 
yet we have in our churches besides prelates, sixteen 
thousand ordained ministers of Christ's Gospel." 

It was a time of great coldness in the English Church, 
and, besides, the clergy did not like to array themselves 
against the wealthy mill-ow^ners of their congregations. 
It requires courage and self-sacrifice to help an unpopu- 
lar cause. 

Ashley made his tour of the factories practical. In a 
mill at Stockport, a young woman had been caught in the 
machinery, and whirled round, with limbs broken. He 
prosecuted the mill-owners, who should have boxed their 
machinery to prevent accident, and they were made to 
pay one hundred pounds to the injured girl, and the 
expenses on both sides, amounting to six hundred pounds. 
What wonder that England was astonished at such an 
Earl ! 

The commission of inquiry, on various manufactures 
and mines, made their report in May, 1842. England 
was horrified. Ashley said in his journal, "Perhaps 
even civilization itself never exhibited such a mass of 
sin and cruelty. The disgust felt is very great, thank 
God; but will it be reduced to action when I call for a 
remedy ? " 

It was shown that a large proportion of the workers 
underground were less than thirteen years of age. About 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 153 

Halifax, children were brought to the pits at six, having 
been taken from their beds at four o'clock. 

" Near Oldham," said Ashley, " children are worked as 
low as four years old ; and in the small collieries toward 
the hills, some are so young they are brought to work in 
their bed-gowns." 

The first employment of a young child, says Mr. 
Hodder, was that of a " trapper." " Behind each door, 
a little child, or trapper, was seated, whose duty it was, 
on hearing the approach of a whirly, or coal-carriage, to 
pull open the door, and shut it again immediately the 
whirly had passed. From the time the first coal was 
brought forward in the morning, until the last whirly 
had passed at night, that is to say for twelve or fourteen 
hours a day, the trapper was at his monotonous, dead- 
ening work. He had to sit alone in the pitchy darkness 
and the horrible silence, exposed to damp, and unable to 
stir for more than a dozen paces with safety, lest he 
should be found neglecting his duty, and suffer accord- 
ingly. He dared not go to sleep — the punishment was 
the strap, applied with brutal severity. Many of the 
mines were infested with rats, mice, beetles, and other 
vermin ; and stories are told of rats so bold that they 
would eat the horses' food in the presence of the miners, 
and have been known to run off with the lighted candles 
in their mouths and explode the gas." 

The trappers, as they grew older, were passed on to 
other employments. " ' Hurrying,' that is, loading small 
wagons, called corves, with coals, and pushing them 
along a passage, was an utterly barbarous labor performed 
by women as well as by children. They had to crawl on 
hands and knees, and draw enormous weights along 
shafts as narrow and as wet as common sewers. When 



154 EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

the passages were very narrow, and not more than 
eighteen to twenty-four inches in height, boys and girls 
performed the work by girdle and chain ; that is to say, 
a girdle was put round the naked waist, to which a chain 
from the carriage was hooked and passed between the 
legs, and crawling on hands and knees, they drew the 
carriages after them. It is not necessary to describe 
how the sides of the hurriers were blistered, and their 
ankles strained, how their backs were chafed by coming 
in contact with the roofs, or how they stumbled in the 
darkness, and choked in the stifling atmosphere. It is 
enough to say that they were obliged to do the work of 
horses, or other beasts of burden, only because human 
flesh and blood was cheaper in some cases, and horse 
labor was impossible in others. 

" ' Coal bearing ' — carrying on their backs, on un- 
railed roads, burdens varying from half a hundredweight 
to one hundredweight and a half — was almost always 
performed by girls and women, and it was a common 
occurrence for little children of the age of six or seven 
years to carry burdens of coal of half a hundredweight 
up steps that, in the aggregate, equalled an ascent, four- 
teen times a day, to the summit of St. Paul's Cathedral ! 
The coal was carried in a creel, or basket, formed to the 
back, the tugs or straps of which were placed over the 
forehead, and the body had to be bent almost double, to 
prevent the coals, which were piled high on to the neck, 
from falling. Sometimes these tugs would break in as- 
cending the ladder, and the consequences would always 
be serious, and sometimes fatal, to those who were im- 
mediately following." 

Sometimes the children worked thirty-six hours con- 
tinuously. They never saw the sun except on Sunday. 



UARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 155 

Their food was of the poorest kind, and eaten irregu- 
larly. They had no education, and were beaten and 
kicked for the smallest offences. Children of eight 
stood ankle deep in water, and pumped all day long. 
Many died young. At thirty, most became asthmatic, 
and rheumatism was almost universal. Men and chil- 
dren worked often in nakedness, and women and girls 
wore only trousers made of 'sacking. The "truck" sys- 
tem prevailed, whereby wages were paid in " orders from 
stores," where twenty-five per cent was charged above 
the usual rates. 

Well might the poor thank God that a man had been 
raised up to plead their cause ! AVell might England 
rejoice that one man was finally able to remove from her 
this sin and shame ! 

In June, 1842, Lord Ashley made a speech in Com- 
mons, "' so powerful that it not only thrilled the House, 
but sent a shudder through the length and breadth of 
the land." 

He records in his diary, June 9 : "On the 7th brought 
forward my motion. The success has been iconderful, 
yes, really wonderful : for two hours the House listened 
so attentively that you might have heard a pin drop, 
broken only by loud and repeated marks of approbation. 
At the close, a dozen members at least followed in suc- 
cession to give me praise, and express their sense of the 
holy cause. ... As I stood at the table, and just before 
I opened my mouth, the words of God came forcibly to 
my mind : ' Only be strong and of a good courage ' — 
praised be His holy name. I was as easy from that 
moment as though I had been sitting in an armchair. 
Many men, I hear, shed tears — Beckett Denison con- 
fessed to me that he did, and that he left the House lest 



156 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

he should be seen. Sir G-. Grey told AVilliam Cowper 
that he ' would rather have made that speech than any 
he ever heard.' Even Joseph Hume was touched. Mem- 
bers took me aside, and spoke in a veri/ serious tone of 
thanks and admiration. I must and will sing an ever- 
lasting ' 7ion nobis.' " 

Richard Cobden came over to Ashley, and, sitting 
down beside him, shook his hand heartily, and said, 
"You know how opposed I have been to your views ; 
but I don't think I have ever been put into such a 
frame of mind, in the whole course of my life, as I have 
been by your speech." 

Prince Albert and the Queen thanked him, and espe- 
cially for a message sent to Victoria from Isabel Hogg, 
an old Scotchwoman. " Collier people suffer much more 
than others," said Isabel Hogg. " You must just tell 
the Queen Victoria that we are quiet, loyal subjects. 
Women-people don't mind work here, but they object to 
horse-work ; and that she would have the blessing of all 
the Scotch coal-women, if she could get them out of the 
pits, and send them to other labor." 

Strongly as everybody seemed to feel about the Col- 
liery Bill, it was delayed and amended and thwarted 
in all ways. Ashley says in his diary, July 8 : " Much, 
very much trouble, to find a peer who would take charge 
of the bill. It is ' the admiration of everybody, but the 
choice of none.' So often refused, that I felt quite 
humbled ; I was a wearisome suitor for a moment's 
countenance. All had some excuse or other; praised it, 
but avoided it. . . . 

" July 26. Bill passed through Committee last night. 
In this work, which should have occupied one hour, they 
spent nearly six, and left it far worse than they found 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 157 

it ; never have I seen such, a display of selfishness, 
frigidity to every human sentiment, such ready and 
happy self-delusion. Three bishops only present. . . . 
The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury went away ! " 

At length the Colliery Bill was passed, and Ashley 
writes in his diary, August 8 : " Took the sacrament on 
Sunday in joyful and humble thankfulness to Almighty 
God, for the undeserved measure of success with which 
He has blessed ray effort for the glory of His name, and 
the welfare of His creatures." 

Through depression in trade, in 1842, there was great 
suffering and rebellion among the poor. In Leeds, one- 
fifth of the population were dependent upon the poor- 
rates. Ten thousand persons were in distress in Shef- 
field. Bread riots broke out. Mobs paraded the streets 
by day, and set fires by night. Many were arrested. 
In one jail there were five hundred prisoners, tried by 
special commissioners appointed by government. 

Lord Ashley went among the operatives, and spoke 
privately and publicly against a spirit of lawlessness. 
The Chartists of Leeds said to him, " Had we a few 
more to speak to us as you have done, we should never 
again think of the Charter." 

Ashley said to the people, in speaking of the women 
who had taken an active part in the riots, " Their pres- 
ence, nay, more, their participation in the riots, has read 
us an awful lesson ; for when the women of a country 
become brutalized, that country is left without a hope. 
I speak these things openly and without fear, because 
you know that I love and respect you, and that I have 
ever said, as I conscientiously believe, that the working- 
classes of these realms are the noblest materials in 
existence, for industry, patriotism, and virtue." 



158 EATiL OF SIIAFTESBUHT. 

Ill 1843 Lord Ashley made a powerful speech, in favor 
of education among the factory operatives. Government 
brought in a bill which provided that each school be 
under the care of a clergyman, two churchwardens, and 
four elective trustees. At once nearly two million per- 
sons, mostly Dissenters, protested through petitions, 
fearful of the undue influence of the Church of England, 
and the bill was withdrawn. 

This year, 1843, Lord Ashley records in his journal : 
" February 13. On Saturday last Samuel Gurney and Mr. 
Fry (son of Elizabeth Fry) called on me to lay the state 
of the opium trade with China before me, and request 
that I would submit it to Parliament, as a great question 
of national morality and religion I agreed in all they 
said, for I had long thought and felt the same." 

Before 1773 some of the East India Company had 
enriched themselves by the cultivation and sale of 
opium. From the first, the Chinese opposed the impor- 
tation of the drug into their country, and published 
edicts against it. Finally, the Emperor of China deter- 
mined to put a stop to a traffic which was ruining his 
subjects. 

" Commissioner Lin came to Canton, seized twenty 
thousand chests of the smuggled opium, worth three 
millions sterling, and had it all destroyed. England now 
declared war; defeated the Chinese in spite of their 
gallant resistance, and by the Treaty of Nankin, in 1842, 
five ports were thrown open to the British trade, twenty- 
one million dollars were paid by China as a war indem- 
nity, and as compensation for the destroyed opium, and 
Hcng-Kong became a British possession." 

Justin McCarthy says, in his "History of Our Own 
Times : " " The Chinese fought very bravely in a great 



EAEL OF SHAFTESBURY. 159 

many instances ; and they showed still more often a 
Spartan-like resolve not to survive defeat. When one 
of the Chinese cities was taken by Sir Hugh Gough, the 
Tartar general went into his house as soon as he saw 
that all was lost, made his servants set fire to the build- 
ing, and calmly sat in his chair until he was burned to 
death." One of the English officers writes of the same 
attack that it was impossible to compute the loss of the 
Chinese ; " for when they found they could stand no 
longer against us, they cut the throats of their wives 
and children, or drove them into the wells or ponds, and 
then destroyed themselves. In many houses there were 
from eight to twelve dead bodies, and I myself saw a 
dozen women and children drowning themselves in a 
small pond, the day after the fight." 

Lord Ashley said, at the conclusion of the war, "I 
rejoice that this cruel and debasing war is terminated ; 
but I cannot rejoice, — it may be unpatriotic, it may be 
un-British, 1 cannot rejoice in our successes. We have 
triumphed in one of the most lawless, unnecessary, and 
unfair struggles in the records of history ; it was a war 
on Avhich good men could not invoke the favor of 
Heaven, and Christians have shed more heathen blood 
in two years than the heathens have shed of Christian 
blood in two centuries ! . . . The peace, too, is as 
wicked as the war. We refuse, even now, to give the 
Emperor of China relief in the matter of the opium 
trade." 

April 4, 1843, Lord Ashley moved in the House of 
Commons : " That it is the opinion of this House that 
the continuance of the trade in opium, and the monopoly 
of its growth in the territories of British India, are de- 
structive of all relations of amity between England and 



160 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

China, injurious to the manufacturing interests of the 
country, by the very serious diminution of legitimate 
commerce, and utterly inconsistent with the honor and 
duties of a Christian kingdom ; and that steps be taken 
as soon as possible, with due regard to the rights of 
governments and individuals, to abolish the evil." 

Ashley made a noble and important speech, which 
filled seven closely-printed columns of the Times on the 
following morning. He showed the dreadful effects of 
the use of opium upon the Chinese people, producing phys- 
ical, mental, and moral decay ; their abject slavery to the 
habit when once fastened upon them ; told the pitiful 
story of how the traffic had been forced upon the na- 
tion at the point of the sword, for the sake of making 
England rich ; how the Baptist Missionary Society 
had decided to work through the agency of American 
missions, sending £500 for the spread of ^ the Gospel, 
because public feeling in China was so strong against 
the English. ^'So, sir," said Ashle}^, "it has come to 
this, that England, which professes to be at the head 
of Christian nations, is precluded, by her own immoral 
conduct, from sending her own missionaries to that part 
of the world which she herself has opened for the 
advancement of civilization and the enlightenment of 
Christianity." 

He showed that " the opium was grown by advances 
from the Imperial Government ; carried down to Cal- 
cutta, and put up for sale under government authority, 
shipped in opium clippers lying in the river, and the 
clippers supplied with arms from the arsenals of the 
government." 

Ashley demanded that Parliament should destroy the 
monopoly which the East India Company possessed, of 



EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 161 

the growth and manufacture of opium, and should pro- 
hibit the cultivation of the drug in the territories of the 
East India Company. 

The Times commended Lord Ashley's arguments as 
" far more statesmanlike " than those who opposed him ; 
who virtually said, " that morality and religion, and the 
happiness of mankind, and friendly relations with China, 
and new markets for British manufacturers, were all 
very fine things in their way ; but that the opium trade 
was worth to the Indian government £1,200,000 a year; 
and £1,200,000 was a large sum of money, which it 
would not be easy to make up from any other source, 
without offending somebody in India ; and, upon the 
whole, that we could not afford to buy morality and 
religion, and the happiness of mankind, and friendly 
relations with China, and new markets for British man- 
ufactures, quite so dear." 

For forty years Lord Ashley opposed the iniquiteus 
opium trade, and it is not yet abolished. 

In 1843 Lord Ashley began his wonderful work in 
the Ragged Schools. He read an advertisement in the 
Times concerning the Field Lane Ragged School, in 
connection with the London City Mission, asking for 
teachers and pecuniary aid. He said, " I never read an 
advertisement with keener pleasure. . . I could not re- 
gard it as other than a direct answer to my frequent 
prayer." 

Field Lane, not far northward from the foot of Hol- 
born Hill, was one of the worst parts of London. It was 
full of trap-doors, dark closets, and other conveniences 
for hiding stolen goods, and a place where many mur- 
dered persons had been thrown into Fleet Ditch. These 
acts "became so frequent and alarming that government 



162 EAEL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

took the matter in charge, and nineteen persons were 
executed at one time, for crimes committed in this 
locality. 

Charles Dickens described the school as held "in a 
low-roofed den, in a sickening atmosphere, in the midst 
of taint, and dirt, and pestilence ; with all the deadly 
sins let loose, howling and shrieking at the doors." 

Lord Ashley at once visited the place, met the teach- 
ers, talked to the children, entered the dens of vice, and 
made himself the friend of the outcasts and the deserted. 

He said of Field Lane School : " I have there seen 
men of forty j^ears of age and children of three in the 
same room — men the wildest and most uncouth, whom 
it was considered dangerous to meet ; and perhaps it 
would be dangerous to meet them in the dark alone, 
but in that room they were perfectly safe. I saw there 
thirty or forty men, none of them with shoes or stock- 
ings on, and some without shirts — the wildest and most 
awful looking men you can imagine. 

" They all sat in a ring, and the only other human 
being in the room was a young woman of twenty-six or 
twenty-seven years of age. . . . She was teaching all these 
wild, rough, uncouth creatures, who never bowed the 
head to any constable or any form of civil authority, yet 
they looked on her with a degree of reverence and affec- 
tion that amounted almost to adoration. I was greatly 
alarmed, and going down-stairs, and meeting the super- 
intendent, I said, ' My good fellow-, I don't like this. 
There she is among all those roughs ! I am very much 
alarmed.' 

" ' So am I,' he said. 

" ' Then why do you leave her there ? ' I asked. 

" He replied : ' I am not alarmed from the same reason 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 163 

that you are. You are alarmed lest they should offer 
some insult to her ; but what I am afraid of is this, that 
some day a man might drop in who, not knowing the 
habits of the place, might lift a finger against her, and if 
he did so, he would never leave the room alive ; he would 
be torn limb from limb.' " 

The Ragged Schools were soon united under the name 
of the Eagged School Union, and of this society Ashley 
was the active, devoted president for forty years. 

Day and night he searched out these wanderers, as 
they slept under arches, or crept into stables. Two 
boys slept in an iron roller in the Park. He sat beside 
them in the schools, they came to his house to tell their 
troubles, he pleaded for them in the great journals of 
England, he interested the whole country in their wel- 
fare. In the Quarterh/ Review he told how, " in squalid 
and half-naked groups they squat at the entrances of 
the narrow, fetid courts and alleys that lie concealed 
behind the deceptive frontages of our larger thorough- 
fares. Whitechapel and Spitalfields teem with them like 
an ant's nesfc ; but it is in Lambeth and in Westminster 
that we find the most flagrant traces of their swarm- 
ing activity. There the foul and dismal passages are 
thronged with children of both sexes, and of every age 
from three to thirteen. . . . Their appearance is wild : 
the matted hair, the disgusting filth that renders neces- 
sary a closer inspection before the flesh can be discerned 
between the rags which hang about it, fill the mind of 
a novice with perplexity and dismay. . . . 

"Visit these regions in the summer, and you are over- 
whelmed by the exhalations ; visit them in winter, and 
you are shocked by the spectacle of hundreds shiverng 
in apparel that would be scanty in the tropics j many 



164 EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

are all but naked ; those that are clothed are grotesque : 
the trousers, Avhen they have them, seldom pass the 
knee; the tail-coats very frequently trail below the 
heels. 

"We are often met with the interrogatory: /What 
will you do with these children when you have educated 
them ? ' Question for question : ' What will you do with 
them if you neglect to educate them ? ' They are not 
soap-bubbles nor peach-blossoms, — things that can be 
puffed away by the breath of a suckling ; they are the 
seeds of future generations ; and the wheat or tares will 
predominate, as Christian principle or ignorant selfish- 
ness shall, hereafter, govern our conduct." 

To the last. Lord Ashley was the beloved friend and 
helper of Ragged Schools. He arranged, partly through 
the help of government, and partly by means of his own 
funds and those of friends, to send thousands of these 
reformed boys and girls to the colonies, particularly to 
South Australia. They were delighted at the chance to 
begin life anew, and always called themselves, in their 
new homes, " Lord Ashley's boys." 

The following, to Lord Ashley and a friend, from two 
young emigrants, is one of scores of letters which must 
have touched the great Earl's heart : — 

We rite these few lines to you hopeing that you ar in good health 
as we ar at preasant we rite to you to let you no that the raonney and 
intrest you have taken in us to is the means of making us bright 
men, but before we wos a pess to scity and more so to Newgate the 
house of Correction, for J B ad bin in gale over seven times on sum- 
mery conviction and thre times for a trial every one looked on 
us theves and roges, but in this contry respected as gentlemen 
when we think of the harships that when threw her it makes us 
cry kind friends do send Fred field and let im come to us I ham 
'sure that he will do well but he never will in England, for his char- 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 165 

acter is to fur gorn, so Lady and Gentleman try to send im to us, 
and if he we will pay ten dolers each fore hira to come to us so has 
he can recover his character as we ave done. 

No more at preasant from your thankful and obedient friend 

Joseph Brady and James Way. 

Some of these letters Lord Ashley kept in a little box, 
so precious to him, that he always carried it about with 
him till his death. 

Great numbers of these boys were placed on training- 
ships, and educated for the merchant service. Before 
this time many in the navy were foreigners, and Shaftes- 
bury thought England should man her own ships. 

Prizes were given to the Ragged School children, when 
they had kept a position for a year. They were encour- 
aged to cultivate flowers and plants, by shows and prizes. 
Many of the flowers were tended in cellars or garrets, 
but they made the care-takers more refined and gentle. 
Some of the flowers " had not the slightest pretension to 
beauty ; some appeared to have had a terrible struggle 
to present even a decent appearance ; others were in the 
last stage of a galloping consumption. Yet all, it was 
reported, had been tended with even too much care, 
amidst the most blighting influences and untoward cir- 
cumstances." 

At one of their flower shows, when Ashley, who had 
become Earl of Shaftesbury, was passing among the peo- 
ple, a little girl took his hand, and looking up into his 
face said, " Please, sir, may I give you a kiss ? '' — "I 
am sure you may, my dear, and I'll give you one too." 

When Shaftesbury was sixty, the Ragged-School teach- 
ers of London made him a present of an oil-painting 
illustrative of the benefits of the Shoe-Black Movement, 
which he had helped inaugurate. It was accompanied 



166 EARL OF SHAFTESBUBY, 

by an elegantly-bound volume containing an address, 
and the names of seventeen hundred subscribers, " all 
sorts and conditions of men." 

In replying to the address. Lord Shaftesbury said : " I 
would rather be President of the Eagged School Union 
than have the command of armies, or wield the destinies 
of empires. That volume, with its valuable collection of 
signatures, may go among ancient family records, and it 
will show to our posterity that some have been good 
enough to say that I have not been altogether useless 
in my generation." 

Both painting and volume were always shown with 
pride to visitors, at the Shaftesbury home. 

Good George Holland, whose Ragged School at George 
Yard, Whitechapel, is to me one of the most interesting 
and heart-touching places in London, tells this incident 
of Lord Shaftesbury. " He frequently noticed the pallid 
faces of many of the scholars. Speaking to a poor boy 
one winter's day, he asked, ^ My man, what is the mat- 
ter with you ? ' The boy replied, ' I have had no food 
for some time.' — ^ How long have you been without ? ' — 
' About twenty -six hours.' — ^ Twenty-six hours,' said the 
Earl, ' why, you must be fainting ; no wonder you look 
ill.' — ' Oh, that's nothing,' said the boy. ^ I have gone 
without two days afore now.' 

" That day the Earl spoke to all the children, and 
many were without necessary food. Going to a little 
girl, he asked, ^ And are you not well, my dear?' — 'I'se 
hungry, I'se cold,' she replied. ^ And when you have 
food, what does mother give you ? ' — ' We has the same 
as mother ; we has bread and water, and sometimes a 
little tea ; but mother can't always afford that.' — 'Poor 
child,' said the Earl ; ' why, you have hardly any cloth- 
ing to cover you.' 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 167 

" He left the schoolroom, and entered into one of the 
small rooms. Presently I followed. I observed tears 
trickling down his face. 'My lord,' I said, ' what is the 
matter ? ' — ' George, those poor children. Poor, dear 
children, how will you get on with them ? ' I replied, 
' My God shall supply all their need.' — ' Yes,' he said, 
' He will ; they must have food directly.' 

" He left the building, and entering his brougham or- 
dered the coachman to drive home. A few hours after, 
two large churns of soup were sent down, enough to feed 
four hundred. This continued ; and that winter ten thou- 
sand basins of soup and bread were distributed to hungry 
children and their parents ; soup made in his own man- 
sion in Grosvenor Square." 

He visited constantly among the poor ; carried toys to 
the children ; read to the sick from the Bible ; loaned 
money till wages were due ; gave pictures to brighten 
desolate homes ; helped persons to get employment ; 
impoverished himself to aid the needy. 

He never forgot the servants of his own household. 
The woman who had been the nurse of his children, and 
housekeeper for over fifty years, was shaken hands with 
every morning after family prayers. Not one of the 
household ever thought of retiring without bidding her 
good-night. It was easy to tell in that home, as in 
others, the good breeding of the inmates by their man- 
ners to their help. 

If Shaftesbury loved the ragged children, they idolized 
him in return. He always slept under a bed-cover made 
of little bits of material, with a big letter S in the cen- 
tre, worked by the boys. They had given it to him for 
a horse-cloth. He replied on taking it, " No, my lads ; 
it shall cover me at night as long as I live." He said 



168 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY: 

to a friend, " I am comfortable under it, as I feel near to 
the poor boysJ^ 

He said, "I believe I have been pretty well clothed by 
day and by night by them. I have had all sorts of things 
made and given to me ; I have had slippers and stock- 
ings ; I have had shoes and waistcoats, and bed-linen, 
too ; coverlets, counterpanes — well, everything but a 
coat. I have had desks, I have had arm-chairs, and they 
gave me such a quantity of writing-paper — all well 
stamped — that I assure you it was enough for all my 
own correspondence for six months. I love it, however, 
because it has been all called forth from their dear little 
hearts, and I prize it all far more than the noblest 
present that could be given me." 

He said, in 1850, " If my life should be prolonged for 
another year, and if, during that year, the Ragged 
School system -were to fall, I should not die in the 
course of nature, I should die of a broken heart." 

The parliaments and congresses of the world have not 
many such members as the Earl of Shaftesbury. 

Field Lane Ragged School, where Lord Ashley first 
began to work, soon became a changed place. In ten 
years it had a free day school for infants, an evening 
school for youths and adults, a woman's evening school, 
industrial classes to teach tailoring and shoemaking, 
night refuge for the destitute, a clothing society, baths, 
a distribution of bread for the starving, mothers' meet- 
ings, Bible classes, and a Ragged Church ! 

No wonder Lord Ashley wrote in his journal : " Hur- 
ried beyond all precedent ; never a moment to myself. 
. . . Home at seven, very tired. I often think, when 
fatigued, how much less my weariness must be than 
that of the wretched factory women. It has, at any 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 169 

rate, this good result — that I feel and make additional 
resolutions to persevere in their behalf.'^ 

Lord Ashley's life was, in many respects, a hard one. 
He says in his diary : " The League (Corn Law) hate me 
as an aristocrat; the land-owners, as a Kadical; the 
wealthy of all opinions, as a mover of inconvenient 
principles. The Tractarians loathe me as an ultra-Prot- 
estant ; the Dissenters, as a Churchman ; the High 
Church think me abominably low ; the Low Church, 
some degrees too high." 

He was eminently practical in his Christianity. He 
was once asked by a city missionary, Thomas Jackson, 
known as the Thieves' Missionary, if he would speak 
to some thieves. Ashley gladly consented. He found 
four hundred thieves gathered, none but that class being 
admitted, lest the company be reported by some one not 
a "friend " of the order. He spoke to them earnestly of 
giving up their old practices and beginning a new life. 

" But how," said one of the men, " are we to live till 
our next meeting ? We must either steal or die." 

Jackson urged them "to pray, as God could help 
them." One of the thieves rose and said, "My Lord 
and gentlemen of the jury, prayer is very good, but it 
won't fill an empty stomach ; " and four hundred men 
responded, " Hear, hear ! " 

Lord Ashley knew that men must be helped bodily 
if their hearts were to be reached. In less than three 
months so effectually had he labored for them that thir- 
teen men were in Canada starting life afresh, and a 
little later three hundred had passed into honest 
employment. 

In the autumn of 1843 Lord Ashley went to Germany 
and Austria, for the health of his wife. As ever, he 



170 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

visited in Prague, Vienna, and elsewhere, the hospitals, 
asylums, and factories. At Ostend, he gave a woman 
some francs, who played a guitar under their window. 
" I love to encourage street music," he said ; " it pleases 
the people and softens them : indeed, unless they get it 
in the street, they get it nowhere." 

In 1844 the first Young Men's Christian Association 
was organized in London, by Mr. George Williams. 
Lord Ashley became the president, and continued so 
until his death. 

The same year, 1844, while interested in various mat- 
ters, such as the establishment of the Free Church in 
Scotland, and in Free Trade debates, he made another 
vigorous campaign for a "Ten Hours Bill" for his fac- 
tory people. Meetings were held, and pamphlets scat- 
tered. Twelve persons were sent to London to help 
Lord Ashley in dividing the city into districts, and can- 
vassing it thoroughly in the interests of the working 
people. On March 15 he made one of his strongest 
speeches in Commons, speaking for two hours and a 
quarter. He asserted that the State has a right to 
watch over and provide for the moral and physical well- 
being of her people. He showed by actual measurement 
that the women and children had " to walk or trot from 
twenty-five to thirty miles a day" at- their machines in 
the factories. 

John Bright, himself a large mill-owner, violently 
opposed the Ten Hours Bill. On the tenth of May, Lord 
Ashley spoke again in Commons, disproving the objec- 
tions urged, — that the bill would cause a diminution of 
produce, a fall in wages, and a rise of price by foreign 
competition. Ashley, in an impassioned and eloquent 
manner, said: "The feeling of the country is roused; 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 171 

and as long as there shall be voices to complain, and 
hearts to sympathize, you will have neither honor abroad 
nor peace at home, neither comfort for the present nor 
security for the future. But I dare to hope for far 
better things, — for restored affections, for renewed 
understanding between master and man, for combined 
and general efforts, for large and mutual concessions of 
all classes of the wealthy for the benefit of the common 
welfare, and especially of the laboring people. 

" Sir, it may not be given to me to pass over this 
Jordan ; other and better men have preceded me, and I 
entered into their labors ; other and better men will 
follow me, and enter into mine ; but this consolation I 
shall ever continue to enjoy, — that, amidst much injus- 
tice, and somewhat of calumny, we have at last lighted 
such a candle in England as, by God's blessing, shall 
never be put out." 

Mr. C. C. Greville, in his "Journal of the Keign of 
Queen Victoria," says : "'I never remember so much ex- 
citement as has been caused by Ashley's Ten Hours 
Bill, nor a more curious political state of things, such 
intermingling of parties, such a confusion of opposition, 
... so much zeal, asperity, and animosity ; so many 
reproaches hurled backwards and forwards. . . . Gov- 
ernment will carry their bill now, and Ashley will be 
able to do nothing, but he will go on agitating session 
after session ; and a philanthropic agitator is more dan- 
gerous than a repealer either of the Union or the Corn 
Laws. We are just now overrun with philanthropy, and 
God knows where it will stop, or whither it will lead 
us." 

Lord Ashley had been asked again and again, ''' Where 
will you stop ? " and he had always answered, '' No- 



172 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

where, so long as any portion of this mighty evil 
remains to be removed." 

Every effort was made to silence Lord Ashley. 
Books were written to disprove his statements. A book 
lies before me, written by an LL.D. of Trinity College, 
Dublin, to show that factory operatives were happy and 
contented. "In one house I noticed a large sampler, 
elaborately worked ; this was framed and hanging over 
the chimney-piece." Samplers are not always an indi- 
cation of happiness. The author says of the Ten Hours 
Bill, " No measure more likely to injure the operatives 
could ever have been devised by perverted ingenuity." 
Strange sympathy with labor ! 

Lord Ashley had to combat the arguments that are 
used even to-day by legislators: "that child-labor is 
necessary for the support of many parents who earn 
low wages and would otherwise suffer." Better even 
that this should happen, than that the future generation 
grow up in ignorance, or with broken health, unfitted 
for good citizenship. In a society where starvation 
wages are permitted, the state must eventually be 
injured by consequent crime, disease, and disloyalty. 

Eichard Cobden well said of child-labor: "In my 
opinion, and I hope to see the day when such a feeling 
is universal, no child ought to be put to work in a cotton- 
mill at all so early as the age of thirteen ; and after that 
the hours should be moderate, and the labor light, until 
such time as the human frame is rendered by nature 
capable of enduring the fatigues of adult labor." 

Peel wished Ashley to accept the Lord Lieutenancy of 
Ireland. Ashley said, " I am fully resolved never to do 
or accept anything . . . which shall in the least degree 
limit my opportunity or control my free action in respect 
of the Ten Hours Bill." 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 173 

In 1845 Ashley obtained the passage of a bill in the 
■interest of children in calico print-works, — children who 
began work even at three and fonr years of age, and 
labored from sixteen to eighteen hours a day. In the 
depths of winter, the mothers might be seen at midnight 
taking their weeping children to the works. In 1846 he 
resigned his seat in Parliament on the repeal of the 
Corn Laws. He had been elected from Dorset as a Pro- 
tectionist, and having come to favor Free Trade, he felt 
that he could no longer truly represent his constituents. 

Mr. John Fielden, the member from Oldham, took up 
the Ten Hours Bill, after Lord Ashley resigned, and 
worked for it most earnestly. Ashley attended meet- 
ings in all the larger towns, using every effort to uphold 
Mr. Fielden. In June, 1847, the " Ten Hours Bill was 
finally carried," limiting the work of women and young 
persons under eighteen to ten hours a day and eight hours 
on Saturday. Out of nearly six hundred thousand per- 
sons employed in textile industries, nearly four hundred 
thousand were women and children, directly benefited 
by the Act. Ashley had labored fourteen yearg almost 
incessantly, and " although it was not given to him to 
pass over this Jordan," but to Mr. Fielden, he was none 
the less overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. 

He and Mr. Fielden were everywhere greeted with 
ovations. Medals were struck in commemoration of the 
event, and one sent to the Queen by the operatives. 
Even some mill-owners clasped Ashley's hand, and said, 
" We were long your determined opponents, but you 
have carried the day. And now, never part with a hair's- 
breadth of what you have gained. It will do no harm 
to us, and it will do great good to the people." 
^ The eyils feared, "foreign competition, loss of trade, 



174 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

reduced wages, and universal distress," said Ashley, " in 
time were answered by increased production, equal prof- 
its, higher wages, and universal prosperity." This law 
was changed in 1850, after great opposition, to ten and 
a half hours on five days of the week for women and 
young persons, and on Saturdays no work for them after 
two. 

Lord Ashley's influence for workingmen has been 
world-wide. The principle of State-care has been so 
extended that now, says John Morley in his Life of Cob- 
den, we have " a complete, minute, and voluminous code 
for the protection of labor; buildings must be kept pure 
of effluvia; dangerous machinery must be fenced; children 
and young persons must not clean it while in motion ; 
their hours are not only limited, but fixed ; continuous 
employment must not exceed a given number of hours, 
varying with the trade,- but prescribed by the law in 
given cases ; a statutable number of holidays is imposed ; 
the children must go to school, and the employer must 
every week have a certificate to that effect ; . . • for the 
due enforcement and vigilant supervision of this im- 
mense host of minute prescriptions there is an immense 
host of inspectors, certifying surgeons, and other author- 
ities whose business it is 'to speed and post o'er land 
and ocean ' in restless guardianship of every kind of 
labor, from that of the woman who plaits straw at her 
cottage door, to the miner who descends into the bowels 
of the earth, and the seaman who conveys the fruits 
and materials of universal industry to and fro between 
the remotest parts of the globe." 

In 1859 four thousand persons assembled in the Free 
Trade Hall at Manchester, to witness the presentation 
to Emily, the Countess of Shaftesbury, of an address and 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 175 

a marble bust of her husband, " by the operatives of the 
manufacturing districts of the North of England, as a 
token of esteem and regard for the persevering and suc- 
cessful efforts of her noble husband in promoting, by 
legislative enactment, a limitation of the hours of labor 
of children, females, and young persons employed in 
mills and factories." The cost of this exquisite work of 
art was defrayed by a collection, almost entirely in 
pence, from the operatives. 

Requests had come meantime to Lord Ashley from 
Bath and Oxford, that he would represent them in Par- 
liament. He was elected from Bath in 1847. He says 
in his journal : " I did not ask a single vote. I appeared 
but once in Bath, and made a single speech before the 
week of the dissolution. I did not pay a single farthing. 
I had not an inch of ribbon, a banner, music, or a pro- 
cession ; not a penny during six months was expended 
on beer ; nor had I one paid agent ; the tradesmen con- 
ducted the Avhole, and with singular judgment and 
concord. This is a model for elections, and heartily do 
I thank God that the precedent has been set in my 
instance." 

In 1849 a great sorrow came to Lord Ashley, in the 
death of his second son, Francis. He was at Harrow at 
school, a lad of sixteen, and tenderly beloved by teachers 
and pupils, for his bright mind and generous nature. 
The last of May he took a severe cold, and inflamma- 
tion followed. When told that the end was near, he 
called his father to his bedside, threw his arms about 
his neck, kissed him a long time, and said, " I want to 
thank you, dearest papa, for having brought me up as 
you have done, — for having brought me up religiously. 
I now feel all the comfort of it ; it is to you I owe my 
salvation." 



176 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Lord Ashley replied, ''^o, dearest boy, it is to the 
grace of God." — "Yes, it is true," said Francis, "but 
you were made the instrument of it." 

To his mother he said, " Oh, mamma, I am so ashamed 
of myself, that through my incaution and neglect I have 
exposed you to this heavy expense ! . . . I shall be so 
happy when I am at home, and under your care ; and I 
shall see all the dear children, and then, too, I shall be of 
such use to papa." 

" Blessed, ever blessed boy ! " says Lord Ashley, " he 
was thinking of my letters and Eagged Schools. Was he 
not, indeed, of use to me ? How many delightful, use- 
ful hours have I passed in his dear society ; he was my 
companion, my coadjutor, nay, half niy very soul ; the 
precious boy helped me more than thousands of wealthy, 
idle, powerful adults." 

He was buried in Harrow churchyard. " Two objects 
are constantly by day and by night before my eyes," 
wrote his father : " I see him dying, and I see his coffin 
at the bottom of the grave. They alternate the one with 
the other; and the flesh, do what I will, predominates. 
Then come to my relief his dear and precious words, 
that God^s mercy sent for my consolation." Nearly forty 
years afterwards, Lord Ashley said no day passed with- 
out some memory of his beloved son. 

In 1851 Lord Ashley accepted the presidency of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, which he held till his 
death. This year the father of Lord Ashley died, and 
he became the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, the possessor 
of St. Giles's House, and a member of the House of 
Lords. 

His first speech in the House of Lords was on a bill 
providing for the "Inspection and Registration of Lodg- 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. Ill 

ing Houses." He had always been deeply interested in 
the housing of the poor. Through his influence, Prince 
Albert had visited with him the crowded and filthy tene- 
ment houses, and the Prince had become the president of 
the " Society for Improving the Condition of the Laboring 
Classes." 

By voice and pen Lord Ashley, now Lord Shaftesbury, 
had told the people of England how the poor lived, 
herded together. ^^Many a dwelling wholly destitute 
of furniture ; many contain nothing except a table and a 
chair; some few have a common bed for all ages and 
both sexes ; but a large proportion of the denizens of 
those regions lie on a heap of rags more nasty than the 
floor itself." 

In Church Lane, Bloomsbury, three families of twenty- 
two persons lived in two rooms, and there were hun- 
dreds of such places. 

In fourteen houses in Wild Court, nearly one thou- 
sand persons found shelter, many sleeping each night 
on the staircases. 

The bill became law. Charles Dickens said to Lord 
Shaftesbury some years afterwards, " It is the best law 
that was ever passed by an English Parliament." 

As long as he lived, he made a continued study of 
model dwellings for the laborers. In 1872 he laid the 
first memorial stone of a workman's city at Battersea, 
near Clapham Junction Station, named the Shaftesbury 
Park Estate, in his honor. The scheme was carried out 
by the "Artisans, Laborers, and General Dwellings Com- 
pany." The streets are macadamized and shaded with 
trees ; the houses are of stone and brick, each with a 
garden in front, a large yard in the rear, and plenty of 
flowers. Six thousand persons live here, and as soon 



178 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

as one tenant moves, scores are ready to take his 
place. 

Some of the houses are sold by weekly instalments, 
and some are rented at one dollar and twenty-five cents 
to two or three dollars a week. The place has a library 
and public wash-houses, but no saloon is permitted. 

He believed great good would result to crowded cities 
from these suburban dwellings for laborers. One of his 
last acts was to beseech the Great ISTorthern Railway to 
arrange such times and fares as would allow workingmen 
to go easily and cheaply to their suburban homes. 

Lord Shaftesbury now turned his attention to the cot- 
tages on the St. Giles's estate. The sixth Earl had long 
been at enmity with his son because the latter, he said, 
''had caused disaffection among the poor." Lord Ashley 
had been taunted with the wretched condition of his 
father's cottagers, but he could do nothing till death 
removed him. 

"Inspected a few cottages," he writes in his diary, — 
"filthy, close, indecent, unwholesome. But what can I 
do ? I am half pauperized ; the debts are endless ; no 
money is payable for a whole year. Every sixpence I 
expend — and spend I must on many things — is bor- 
rowed. . . . Oh, if instead of one hundred thousand 
pounds to pay in debt, I had that sum to expend, 
what good I might do ! But it has pleased God other- 
wise." 

He discovered that his farmers were cheating their 
workmen by charging above market price, and this he 
stopped at once. He borrowed money and improved the 
cottages. He started evening classes for young men, 
and cricket clubs in the summer. He found some years 
later that his steward had defrauded him of over twelve 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 179 

thousaDd pounds, thus increasing his debts, but these 
Lord Shaftesbury paid after years of self-sacrifice. 

In 1854 Lord Aberdeen, the Premier, wished to bestow- 
on Shaftesbury the Order of the Garter, "from a desire 
to mark my admiration of your unwearied exertions in 
the cause of humanity, and of social improvement," 
wrote Aberdeen. 

Shaftesbury felt obliged to decline. He says in his 
journal, " Minny wants me to accept it, 'as a just 
acknowledgment,' so she says, 'of my deserts.' I am 
unwilling to do so, lest it should be considered a pay- 
ment of them, and I be told, hereafter, either that I was 
never disinterested in my labors, or, when I appeal to 
Government for aid in my projects, that they have done 
enough to oblige me, and that they can do no more. 

"I do not, myself, care about the thing the least in 
the world ; and I do not see that it would be advisable 
to take a step by which nothing can be gained and some- 
thing may be lost." Notwithstanding his indifference 
to the honor, he became a Knight of the Garter in 1861, 
at the request of Palmerston. 

In 1854 the Crimean War began. The winter in the 
camp before Sevastopol, in the harbor of Balaklava, 
and in the hospitals of Scutari, brought disease and death 
to thousands. "The noblest army England ever sent 
from these shores," said the Times, " has been sacrificed 
to the grossest mismanagement." 

A Sanitary Commission in the East was proposed by 
Lord Shaftesbury, and at once acted upon, he writing 
out minute instructions for the commissioners who were 
appointed to the work in the Crimea. " That Commis- 
sion," Florence Nightingale wrote to Lord Shaftesbury, 
" saved the British army." 



180 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Palmerston, who had married the mother of Lady 
Shaftesbury in 1839, after Lord Cowper's death, had be- 
come Prime Minister. He and his son-in-law had been 
thrown much together, and had been warm friends for 
years. He offered Shaftesbury the Duchy of Lancaster, 
with a seat in the Cabinet, but it was declined. 

This year, 1855, Lord Shaftesbury buried another son, 
Maurice, who had been for several years an invalid. " I 
have lost two precious sons for the short time of human 
life," he said, " but I have, by the love of Christ, housed 
them forever in heaven." 

This year he was active about the " E-eligious Worship 
Bill," and one in behalf of milliners and dressmakers, 
prohibiting work between ten p.m. and eight a.m. in 
summer, and nine p.m. and eight a.m. in winter. Their 
days of work had been from fifteen to eighteen hours in 
length, with only from two to six hours for rest. 

Through the ten years of Lord Palmerston's Premier- 
ship, 1855-1865, Shaftesbury's influence was very appar- 
ent. He became known as the "Bishop-maker," from his 
suggestions as to the proper men for bishops. "Palm- 
erston does not know, in theology," said Shaftesbury, 
" Moses from Sydney Smith. The vicar of Eomsey, 
where he goes to church, is the only clergyman he ever 
spoke to ; and as for the wants, the feelings, the views, 
the hopes and fears of the country, and particularly the 
religious part of it, they are as strange to him as the 
interior of Japan." 

Palmerston had at his disposal twenty-five mitres, 
and ten deaneries, including three English archbishop- 
rics and two Irish, sixteen English and four Irish bish- 
oprics. 

Palmerston's death in 1865 was a great blow to 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 181 

Shaftesbury. He stood by his bedside and prayed over 
him ill departing. " It is a change and a gap to Minny," 
he wrote in his diary. " He tenderly loved and admired 
her, and said as she entered the room, not many days 
before his death, 'Minny, come in, come in; you always 
seem to me like a sunbeam.' . . . Ah, but to none will 
the loss be as it is to myself. I lose a man, who, I know, 
esteemed and loved me far beyond every other man liv- 
ing. He showed it in every action of his heart, in every 
expression of his lips, in private and in public, as a man, 
as a relative, and as a minister. A great and mighty 
door for good is now closed upon me, so far as I can see, 
forever. . . . He listened at once to my earnest counsel 
to give baronetcies to Baxter of Dundee, and Crossley 
of Halifax, in acknowledgment of their princely gener- 
osity to the people." 

During these years Shaftesbury had been helping for- 
ward whatever was good. He had been the earnest friend 
of Garibaldi and Count Cavour. He moved all English 
hearts for suffering Poland, by his pen and his speeches. 
He had been the ardent friend of the North in the Civil 
War, largely because he abhorred slavery. He wrote to 
the Times at the beginning of the war, that " the triumph 
of the South meant the consolidation of slavery, and his 
sympathies were, therefore, wholly for the North." He 
welcomed Mrs. Stowe and Sumner to his heart and home. 

He said, " All my life long I have wished and prayed 
for peace and friendship with the United States." 
When Garfield died, he wrote to James Russell Lowell, 
" It is a loss to all the human race, not only to America 
and to the British Empire." 

Lord Shaftesbury was always most cordial to Ameri- 
cans, his grave, kindly face growing more kindly still as 



182 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

he talked witli one. He was very modest in manner, 
though, self-possessed ; easily approached, with none of 
the stiffness one finds in pretentious people ; natural in 
conversation ; courteous in listening, and friendly as be- 
hooves one who loves humanity. Whether one met 
him and his daughters in noble George Holland's Ragged 
School, or in a London drawing-room, — I am thankful 
to have seen him in both, — he was ever the same refined, 
agreeable, grand-hearted gentleman, 

A third child, his beloved Mary, had died of consump- 
tion in 1861. In 1865 his mother died. In 1866 Shaftes- 
bury was urged by the Earl of Derby, the Premier, to 
take the Duchy of Lancaster, the Home Office, or the 
Presidentship of the Council. He declined the honor, 
saying, "I should, in fact, withdraw myself from the 
many and various pursuits which have occupied a very 
large portion of my life ; and which, so far from abate- 
ment as I grow older, appear to increase in number and 
force, there remaining yet fourteen hundred thousand 
women, children, and young persons to be brought under 
the protection of the Factory Acts." 

He opposed the Reform Bill of 1867, with its exten- 
sion of suffrage, believing that the elective franchise 
should be a reward of " thrift, honesty, and industry," 
and not a right. He believed that the lodger franchise 
and household suffrage tended to the establishment of 
democracy. 

An ardent Protestant, he always felt the deepest inter- 
est in Ireland. " I never can speak of that country," he 
said, "without shame and remorse. Centuries of mis- 
government and neglect have brought that island into 
the condition it is now in." 

He. opposed the revision of the Bible, and, with tens of 



EAI^L OF SHAFTESBURY. 183 

thousands of others, rejoiced that the new version has 
never come into general use. He said of our Authorized 
Version, '- 1 love intensely its rich, melodious, and heart- 
moving language. It is like the music of Handel, and 
carries Divine truth and comfort to the inmost soul." 
He opposed "secular" education, and protested against 
the exclusion of the Bible from the schools. 

In 1871 he obtained legislation in favor of the thirty- 
thousand children and young persons who worked in 
brickyards. He went to the brickfields. " I saw little 
children," he said in the House of Lords, "three parts 
naked, tottering under the weight of wet clay, some of 
it on their heads, and some on their shoulders ; and 
little girls with large masses of wet, cold, and drip- 
ping clay pressing on their abdomens. Moreover, the 
unhappy children were exposed to the most sudden tran- 
sitions of heat and cold ; for, after carrying their bur- 
dens of wet clay, they had to endure the heat of the kiln, 
and to enter places where the heat was so fierce that I 
was not myself able to remain more than two or three 
minutes." 

The year 1872 was to try Lord Shaftesbury as he had 
never been tried. June 10 he writes in his diary : " To- 
day my wedding-day. Eorty-one years ago was I united 
to that dear, beautiful, true, and affectionate darling, my 
blessed Minny. What a faithful, devoted, single-hearted 
and captivating wife she has been, and is, to me ! And 
what a mother ! " 

She had gone to Mentone with her daughter Constance, 
who was fading out of life. On their return they went 
to Malvern, where Lady Shafi;esbury became ill from 
constant care and watching. She returned to London, 
and seemed to rally, but she died at midnight, October 



184 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

14, almost her last words being, " None but Christ, none 
but Christ." She was buried in the little village church 
of Wimborne St. Giles. On the simple tablet one may 
read : " To the memory of a wife, as good, as true, and as 
deeply beloved, as God, in His undeserved mercy, ever 
gave to man." 

"I am astounded and dazed," wrote Lord Shaftesbury 
to a friend, " to find myself without her. She was my 
earthly mainstay, and cheered almost every moment of 
my existence by the wonderful combination of truth, 
simplicity, joyousness of heart, and purity of spirit. . . . 
'During the long space of forty years that God, in His 
sj)ecial and undeserved mercy, allowed me to live in 
union with that inestimable woman, there was an in- 
crease and no abatement of love on either side." 

A year later he wrote : " Her loss is more and more 
"keen every day. God alone knows what I feel and suf- 
fer. . . . Shall I never see her again, Lord, that sweet- 
est, dearest, most precious of women ? Surely there will 
be recognition ; surely a reunion of love. . . . Perhaps 
she and my darling Conty are much nearer than I sup- 
pose. Perhaps they see me, watch over me, and pray 
for me." 

- Two years later he wrote : " St. Giles. Evelyn [his 
son] is come here safe and sound. The bells are ringing 
joyfully, but she, my beloved one, who lies beneath them, 
hears them not. How glad would her dear heart have 
been in the success of her sympathizing son ! " Evelyn, 
like his older brother Antony, had been chosen a member 
of Parliament. 

Six years later he wrote in his journal: "The day 
before her death, even in her old age, she seemed to me 
as beautiful as the day on which I married her. . . . 



EARL OF SHAFrESBURY. 185 

Why was she taken away ? God, in His wisdom, alone 
can know. The loss (I speak as a man) is beyond all 
power of language to express. God ! Thou only 
knowest the severity of the stroke ; and how she was to 
me a security and a refuge." 

A month later Lord Shaftesbury took his daughter 
Constance again to Mentone, by the advice of physi- 
cians. He wrote in his journal; "Journey very tedious 
and very sorrowful. I could admire nothing, enjoy 
nothing, for she was not here to share it with me." 

" December 12. How wonderful, and how solitary, as 
I look at the setting sun, and remember that my Min, 
my precious Min, is gone from me — never to return !" 

'- December 16. At half-past one this day God took 
the soul of my blessed Conty to Himself. . . . Heaven 
itself seemed opened before her eyes. ' Christ is very 
near me,' she said ; and when I reminded her of her 
mother's favorite line, ^ Simply to Thy cross I cling,' she 
expanded her hands, her whole face beamed with the 
loveliest and happiest smile I ever saw, and she inclined 
her head towards me in assent quite exulting. . . . Half 
an hour or more before her death she became suddenly 
quite herself, as in days of strength and joy. She sat 
up in bed, her face was radiant with inward pleasure, 
she spoke to every one around. . . . Soon after she ex- 
claimed, ' I know that I am going to die, for I feel so 
happy.' With these words she fell into a soft sleep. 
In a short time she was gone, and no one could mark 
the moment of departure. . . . Was her blessed mother 
there ? Was our own most dear Lord far off ? She 
said, ' Christ is very near ; ' she must, I think, have 
perceived something that we did not." 
. Lord Shaftesbury worked harder than ever, now that 



186 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

death had taken so much of the cheer out of his life, 
and he knew that the time was short. He established, 
in connection with the "Water-cress and Flower Girls' 
Mission," a fund in memory of his wife, the "Emily 
Loan Fund." When flowers are out of season, these 
girls and women earn a miserable living. One girl 
would loan a baked-potato oven, a coffee-stall, or a board 
for the sale of whelks. When the actual value of the 
article was repaid, it became the property of the hirer. 
Out of a thousand loans the society did not lose fifty 
pounds, so honest were these poor workers. 

In the House of Lords, and on the platform, he spoke 
against vivisection. He wrote prefaces for a Life of 
Luther, "Uncle Tom," Miss Cotton's "Our Coffee-Room," 
and other books that helped the world onward for good. 
He opposed the Afghan war as "arbitrary and need- 
less." He opposed the Queen taking the title of " Em- 
press of India." He had ascertained that among the 
working-people the universal feeling was one of repug- 
nance. He said to the Lords, in the course of his speech 
against it, that it would not be surprising for these 
people one day to say, when wages were low and there 
was discontent, " You are trying to turn your king into 
an emperor ; we also shall make an effort to turn him 
into a president." 

He obtained the passage of a bill to regulate the labor 
of the women and children in India, " a system," he said, 
" as barbarous as that which formerly existed in Eng- 
land." It has not been enforced, for how few care for 
those far-off people, if profit can only be made ! 

On April 28, 1881, Lord Shaftesbury had reached his 
eightieth birthday. A great meeting was held in Guild- 
hall to celebrate the event, and present him with a por- 



EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. 187 

trait of himself, painted by Mr. B. S. Marks. Every 
part of the building was crowded, while outside the coster- 
mongers gathered with their gayly-bedecked donkeys, 
and the flower-girls scattered flowers before him as he 
entered. 

Among the speeches made, none pleased him more 
than that of Mr. W. E. Forster, himself a mill-owner in 
Yorkshire, and forever honored in England as the author 
of the Education Bill of 1870. Speaking of the exciting 
times of the Factory movement, he said, " The good con- 
duct on the part of the population was in a great measure 
due to the moderating influences which were brought to 
bear on them by Lord Ashley. How I do wish that all 
agitators, when they are advocating the removal of great 
and real grievances, would take an example from the 
way in which Lord Ashley conducted that agitation, and 
remember with what care they should consider both the 
immediate and the ultimate effect of what they say, upon 
those who are suffering." 

At the opening of the Costers' Hall in the fall of 1881, 
twenty thousand people followed Lord Shaftesbury with 
flags and a band of music. He had long felt a deep inter- 
est in these costermongers, who sold fruit and produce on 
the streets. He always delighted to call himself a " Cos- 
ter," and would often spend an evening with his " breth- 
ren." He used to say 'Hhat the poor needed sympathy, 
not patronage." 

Over a thousand Costers in the Golden Lane Mission 
presented him with a donkey, profusely decorated with 
ribbons. Lord Shaftesbury, w^ho loved animals, put his 
arm around the donkey's neck, a,s he said, ^' When I have 
passed away from this life I desire to have no more said 
of me than that I have done my duty, as the poor donkey 



188 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

has done his, with patience and unmurmuring resigna- 
tion." 

When this donkey died he was buried on the estate 
where the pet dogs and horses of the family were buried, 
and the Costers gave Shaftesbury another. It became 
a great pet with the grandchildren, and would follow 
them like a spaniel. 

The closing years of Lord Shaftesbury's life were full 
of honors, as they were full of labors. When he was 
eighty -three, on June 26, 1884, in the midst of much 
ceremony he received the freedom of the city of Lon- 
don in a golden casket. He had already been presented 
with the freedom of the city of Glasgow, August 28, 
1871, and of Edinburgh, in token of his long-continued 
philanthropic efforts. Oxford had given him the degree 
of D.C.L. A banquet was given him at the Mansibn 
House, three hundred persons, representing all the great 
social, religious, and political interests of the kingdom, 
responding to the invitation. When he was eighty-four, 
twelve friends sent him a draft for four thousand five 
hundred pounds, " for the honor of his approaching 
birthday." 

On May 22, 1885, there were gathered in Exeter Hall, 
those who had been scholars in the Ragged Schools 
scattered over the country. They made him a present 
of six framed copies of Holman Hunt's "Light of the 
World," that he might present one to each of his 
children. 

His very last work was to arrange for the judicious 
distribution of £60,000, left to his care by a lady, Mrs. 
Douglas, at her death, for London charities. 

The closing days were drawing near. He said, "When 
I feelage creeping on me, and know that I must soon 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 189 

die — I hope it is not wrong to say it — but I cannot 
bear to leave the world with all the misery in itJ^ At 
another time he said to a friend, " Weylland, there are 
not two hours in the day but I am thinking and pray- 
ing, 'Come, Lord Jesus.' It won't be long, and then 
I shall be gathered to my dear Emily." 

In the latter part of July, 1885, Lord Shaftesbury 
went to Folkestone, by the wish of his physician. 
Every morning he used to ask his daughters that the 
twenty-third Psalm be read to him : " The Lord is my 
Shepherd ; I shall not want." Towards the last he said, 
^' I am just touching the hem of His garment." When 
a letter was read from the Dean of Westminster, asking 
that Lord Shaftesbury be buried in the Abbey, he 
replied, "No — St. Giles's — St. Giles's." 

On Thursday, October 1, at a quarter before two, the 
end came. His last words were " Thank you," to his 
faithful steward Goldsmith, who had handed him some- 
thing. 

A week later the body of Lord Shaftesbury lay in his 
home at Grosvenor Square, the large room filled with 
flowers sent by rich and poor. October 8, the funeral 
services were held in Westminster Abbey. The Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts well said that " Lord Shaftesbury could 
not be honored by an interment in Westminster Abbey, 
but the Abbey would be honored by receiving his 
remains." 

"In spite of keen wind and heavy rain," says Dr. 
John W. Kirton in his " True Nobility," " soon after ten 
o'clock that morning people were seen approaching 
Westminster Abbey from all directions. At first they 
came by twos and threes, then by dozens, and finally by 
continuous streams. It could be seen at once that they 



190 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 

were drawn from all classes of society, but it was 
specially noticeable that many of them were of the 
poorest of the poor. . . . There were working-men and 
working-women, ragged urchins, and gray-headed old 
men. ... It was very touching to see, here and there, 
the attempts of those who had little enough clothing of 
any description, to wear some badge of mourning. A 
bit of crape was tied round the sleeve of many a 
ragged jacket, and many a bonnet was bound with black 
ribbon. . . . 

" On the east or river side of Parliament Street, it 
became all alive. First there came the bands playing 
their dirge music as they walked along, then the banner- 
carriers carrying aloft the flags of peace. On the one 
from the Twickenham Boys' Home could be read the 
words: 'Naked, and ye clothed me.' On the banner of 
the Boys' Kefuge Farm School, Bisley : ' I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in.' On a smaller banner could be seen 
the words : ' I was sick, and ye visited me ; ' and on a 
wreath of white flowers were hung the words : ' Sleep- 
ing with the angels,' which occupied the centre. . . . 

"As the hour of noon drew nigh, a procession, repre- 
senting the costermongers, came in sight, their band 
playing the 'Dead March in Saul.' The numerous depu- 
tation, some of whose members wore scarfs or other 
emblems, was headed by a large pictorial banner, which 
had on its upper and middle surface a wreath of violets 
encircling the words, ' Farewell, but not forever ; ' the 
name of Shaftesbury as President of the Costermongers' 
and General Dealers' and Burial Society, established in 
1872, being emblazoned beneath." 

The Abbey was full long before the appointed hour 
of service. Besides royalty, archbishops, and members 



EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 191 

of Parliament, there were present representations from 
over two hundred societies, with each of which Lord 
Shaftesbury was connected ; Ragged Schools, hospitals, 
orphan asylums, Young Men's Christian Associations, 
blind societies, missions, and the like. 

The coffin of the noble earl was covered Avith flowers ; 
one wreath from " Three Indian orphans " to their 
"beloved Sahib;" another, "A loving tribute from the 
flower-girls of London ; " another from the Crown Prince 
and Princess of Germany. 

'^As the hearse moved from the Abbey," says Mr. 
Hodder, " the band of the Costermongers' Temperance 
Society playing the hymn ' Safe in the arms of Jesus,' 
a poor laboring man with tattered garments, but with a 
piece of crape sewed on to his sleeve, turned to one who 
stood beside him, and with a choking voice said, 'Our 
earl's gone ! God A'mighty knows he loved us, and we 
loved him. We sha'n't see his likes again.' " 

The coffin was borne out of the Abbey, followed by 
thousands of mourners, to Waterloo Station, and thence 
forwarded by train to St. Giles's. All through the town 
hats were lifted as the procession passed on its way to 
the church. 

On the ninth of October, at midday, the Earl of 
Shaftesbury was laid beside his Emily. The service 
closed with the hymn : — 

" Now the laborer's task is o'er, 

Now the battle day is past; 
Now upon the farther shore 

Lands the voyager at last. 
Father, in Thy gracious keeping, 
Leave we now Thy servant sleeping." 



JOHN BRIGHT. 



ANEW YORK merchant, in speaking to the chil- 
dren of Gravel Lane Ragged School, in Salford, 
England, said : " If you were to ask in the schools of 
America, ' Who are the three men whom, as a country, 
we love the most ? ' they would reply, ' First, Wash- 
ington, because he was the father of his country ; 
second, Abraham Lincoln, because he was the saviour 
of his country ; third, John Bright, because he is the 
friend of the country.' " As long as the Civil War is 
remembered, so long will the memory of this great 
Englishman who pleaded our cause before his people, 
be remembered and honored in America. 

In Rochdale, a manufacturing town near the centre 
of England, John Bright, the second in a family of 
eleven children, was born November 16, 1811. His 
father, Jacob Bright, an orphan, was apprenticed to a 
farmer, Mr. Holme, who, having three or four looms in 
his house, taught the boy weaving. When the youth 
was twenty-one, and free from his apprenticeship, so 
said his illustrious son John, years afterwards, " he 
sallied forth to seek his living, or, as the story-books 
say, to seek his fortune, along with his fellow-appren- 
tice, Mr. William Tew ; and I have heard him say that 
their joint purse did not amount to more than about ten 

192 



JOHN BRIGHT. 193 

shillings. He found employment at his business as a 
weaver, and he was able to earn about six shillings per 
week/' 

Six years later, Jacob, with two sons of Mr. Holme, 
came to Rochdale, and, with two or three other persons, 
built a cotton-mill. The young Quaker weaver had 
shown an aptitude for business, and the people believed 
in his honesty. 

The apprentice had endeared himself to the daughter 
of Mr. Holme, Sophia, whom he married, but she died 
in 1806, soon after their union. Three years later, at 
the age of thirty-four, he married a lady fourteen years 
his junior, Miss Martha Wood, the daughter of a trades- 
man. Their first child, William, died -at the age of four; 
their second child, John, though very delicate as a boy, 
lived to bless two continents with his eloquence and 
his nobility of character. 

The mother was a woman of great refinement, fond 
of books, and especially of poetry, a characteristic 
her son inherited. Busy with her ten children, she 
still found time to hold religious meetings twice a week 
with the young women of the neighborhood, to make, 
with her own hands, clothes for the factory-girls, and to 
visit the sick and the needy. 

One morning, while walking with her little John, she 
met a poor widow with a son near his age, wearing very 
ragged clothes. She took them home with her, and re- 
moving John's first new suit put it on the ragged child. 
The widow's children became useful managers in Mr. 
Bright's business in after years. 

Though Mrs. Bright died when her eldest son John 
was but eighteen, with nine children younger, she left 
such memories as could never be forgotten by them or 



194 JOHN BRIGHT. 

the people of Kochdale. She was always held in the 
greatest reverence. Her son carried out the principles 
she had taught him. 

Jacob Bright, the father, was also of sterling charac- 
ter. He was frank, genial, fair to his workmen, and 
became? wealthy through his industry and ability. Mr. 
William Eobertson, in his Life of John Bright, tells 
a story of the father which pleasantly illustrates his 
character. 

"A steam-tenter, the father of six children, residing 
at Syke, in the neighborhood of Mr. Bright's residence, 
many years ago, employed at a foundry in the heart of 
the town of E-ochdale, receiving wages inadequate for 
the support of his family, had to depend partially upon 
charity. His wife waited upon Mr. Jacob Bright for 
the loan of two shillings, promising to return the 
money the following week. 

" The date came round, but, instead of being able to 
repay the money, she found it absolutely necessary to 
ask for another loan of two shillings, and this repeated 
until the loan accumulated to one pound. The eldest 
boy, about eight years old, who had been sent for the 
money, and conveyed the promises of repayment, was 
aroused one morning with the usual cry : ' John, thou 
must go again to Jacob.' 

" ' Mother,' said the boy, ' hast thou the one pound 
ready ? ' 

" ' Xo, John,' replied the mother. 

" ' Then am I to get more money ? ' said the boy. 

" ^ Yes, John ; we cannot do without it, and I am not 
able to pay yet,' added the mother. 

" The boy burst into tears, saying sorrowfully that he 
was ashamed to go again, after making so many prom- 




JOHN BRIGHT. 



JOHN BRIGHT. 195 

ises to pay, and obeyed his mother very reluctantly. 
Before he arrived at the counting-house he met Mr. 
Jacob Bright, who inquired why he was crying. The 
boy reminded him that it was the day for the repay- 
ment of the one pound, and that his mother, still unable 
to fulfil her promise, wanted another two shillings. 

" Mr. Jacob Bright, patting the boy on the back, bade 
him cease crying, saying he would rub out the old score 
and begin again. The borrowing and promising went 
on, but the day never arrived, during the life of Mr. 
Jacob Bright, for the repayment." 

After building several large mills, Mr. Bright retired 
from business in 1839, leaving his sons to carry on 
the works, under the firm name of " John Bright and. 
Brothers." 

At an early age, John Bright was sent to a school 
taught by Mr. William Littlewood, where he became a 
favorite pupil. At ten he went to the Friends' School, 
at Ackworth, Yorkshire, and later to Newton. He said 
years afterwards : " The last of the schools I was at 
was the one with regard to which I have most pleasant 
recollections, for it was situated in a very nice valley, 
and by the side of a very pleasant river ; and the studies 
were not forced upon us with undue harshness ; but we 
spent a good deal of time in bird-nesting, and fishing in 
the river Hodder, chiefly for trout ; and frequently dur- 
ing the summer months, in bathing and swimming in 
one of the pools of that pleasant stream. I did not get 
much of what is called education ; what I got was 
something — I had almost said — far better, for I got, 
I believe, whatever store of good health I have had 
from that time to this." 

At fifteen, John's school life was over, and he was 



196 JOHN BRIGHT. 

back at Rochdale in his father's mills, learning the 
business. Sometimes^ with sleeves rolled up, he assisted 
his workmen in lifting bales of cotton ; then he learned 
•the art of weaving ; he also kept accounts in his father's 
office. He regretted afterwards that he had not stayed 
longer in school, — his father did not see the special 
need of a superior education, — but, encouraged by his 
mother, he spent his evenings in the study of history, 
poetry, and the topics of the day, and finally became 
one of the most intelligent men of his time. 

One often hears persons lament that they had little 
opportunity for early education, or they could have done 
more in the world. As a rule, those who desire an edu- 
cation, get it, whether in a schoolroom or in an attic. 
They use all the leisure they can command in wise read- 
ing. If people are mediocre in knowledge, the fault is 
generally their own. 

" But," says some young man or young woman, " I 
am tired when the day's work is done." So was John 
Bright, but he studied. ^'I am too busy with social 
duties," say others. Each one must decide for one's self 
how to use time. The road to renown usually leads up 
many steep mountains, and through difficult passes, be- 
fore the heights are won. 

John Bright at nineteen was a handsome youth, with 
curling brown hair, blue eyes, a genial smile, a man- 
ner which showed determination and energy, and his 
mother's fondness for doing good. He was called by 
his own family "the thinker," because so deeply inter- 
ested in great questions. 

Seeing the great need of temperance principles among 
the workmen, he and two other persons arranged for a 
lecture on the subject in the theatre in Toad Lane, 



JOHN B BIGHT. 197 

Kochdale. In those days total abstinence was an un- 
popular subject ; times have fortunately changed since 
then. 

After this meeting, young Bright and his friend Oliver 
Ormerod decided to address a gathering in a Unitarian 
school building in the country. The room, only twelve 
yards by six, was crowded with curious people long 
before the time of meeting. On their way thither the 
young men agreed, if one became nervous in speaking, 
that he should be reassured by manifestation of applause, 
begun by the other. Both probably spoke well, because 
both were in earnest. 

Ormerod gave his life to Sunday-school work and vis- 
iting the sick and the sorrowing. When, years after, he 
was near death, John Bright, famous and beloved, visited 
him. "You have done a great work, sir, in your life,'' 
said the dying Ormerod. " You have worked as hard," 
was the response of John Bright. " My work has been 
of a public character, but yours has been not the less 
useful." 

Two years after this first temperance speech, Kev. 
John Aldis, a Baptist minister, came to Bochdale, to 
speak at a Bible Society meeting in the Friends' Meet- 
ing House. Visiting at the residence of an acquaintance, 
he was told that Mr. Bright, twenty-one years of age, 
was also to speak, and would accompany Mr. Aldis to 
the place of worship. 

"Soon a slender, modest young gentleman came," says 
Mr. Aldis, " who soon surprised me by his intelligence 
and thoughtfulness. I took his arm on the way to the 
meeting, and I thought he seemed nervous. I think it 
was his first public speech, at all events, in such con- 
nection. It was very eloquent and powerful, and car- 



198 JOHN BRIGHT. 

ried away the meeting ; but it was elaborate and 
Tnemoriter. 

" On our way back, I congratulated him ; he said that 
such efforts cost him too dear, and asked nie how I spoke 
so easily. I then took the free advantage of my senior- 
ity to set fully my notions : . . . that in his case, as in 
most, I thought it would be best not to burden the mem- 
ory too much, but having carefully prepared and com- 
mitted any portions where special effect was desired, 
merely to put down other things in the desired order, 
leaving the wording of them to the moment. 

"Years rolled away. I had entirely forgotten the 
name of the young ^Friend,' when the Free Trade 
Bazaar was held in London. One of those engaged in 
it — Mr. Baker of Stockport — calling on me, asked if 
I had called on Mr. Bright. I said I had not been able 
to attend the meetings, and did not personally know 
him at all. He replied, ' You must, for I heard him say 
that you gave him his first lesson in public speaking.' 
I went to a subsequent meeting, and recognized the 
young ^Friend' of 1832." 

Mr. Bright said, many years afterward, " I have never 
been in the habit of writing out my speeches ; certainly 
not for more than thirty years past. The labor of writ- 
ing is bad enough, and the labor of committing to mem- 
ory would be intolerable ; and speeches 'read' to a meet- 
ing are not likely to be received with much favor. It is 
enough to think over what is to be said, and to form an 
outline in a few brief notes. But first of all, a real 
knowledge of the subject to be spoken of is required; 
with that, practice should make speaking easy." He 
thought a person must be logical in mind, full of ideas, 
and free of speech, to become a good speaker. 



JOHN BRIGHT. 199 

Mr. Bright once said at a dinner-party : " The whole 
secret of effective speaking is here : of course, if you 
mean to speak, you first know what you are going to 
say ; and when you have resolved on that, the next 
point is to speak very deliberately — every word, in fact 
every syllable, should be expressed. If you do this, and 
if you have matter worth listening to, you will be lis- 
tened to, and you will acquire a confidence and ease you 
won't acquire in any other way." 

In these early years, and, indeed, through life, he 
spoke against capital punishment, whenever an oppor- 
tunity offered. His humane and Christian views are not 
yet universally accepted. 

The following year, 1833, Mr. J. S. Buckingham, a 
member of Parliament for Sheffield, delivered a course 
of lectures on Palestine and Egypt ; young Bright was so 
pleased, that, at the close of the course, he returned a 
vote of thanks to the speaker in a brief but eloquent 
address. Mr. Buckingham was so much impressed with 
the speech that he said to a friend, " Mark my words, if 
that young man lives, he will become one of the greatest 
orators in England." 

This year, 1833, Mr. Bright and a number of friends 
formed " The Rochdale Literary and Philosophical So- 
ciety." Lectures "On the universal education of the 
lower classes," and kindred subjects, were given at some 
of the meetings ; and at others, such topics were dis- 
cussed, as : " From our study of history, ancient and 
modern, what form of government appears the best suited 
to promote the happiness of mankind ? " On this topic, 
submitted by Mr. Bright, he made the motion : " That a 
limited monarchy is best suited for this country at the 
present time." 



200 JOHN BRIGHT. 

Up to this age, twenty-two, young Bright had been 
a member of a cricket club, which played twelve games 
during the year ; but he now discontinued it, as his life 
was becoming too full of absorbing labor. 

In the workshop, he debated daily with some of the 
veteran E-adicals. He listened eagerly to the stories of 
an old workman who had been a soldier for twenty- 
eight years, who had fought in many battles and had 
endured much hardship. This, without doubt, had its 
influence on the man who was later to electrify England 
in his appeals for peace. 

In 1835, still remembering the lectures on Palestine 
and Egypt, countries which he had become eager to see, 
Mr. Bright, with a friend, went to the Holy Land, visit- 
ing Gibraltar, Malta, Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens, 
Italy, France, and Belgium. A great admirer of the 
poetry of Byron, Bright went to most of the noted 
places mentioned in " Childe Harold," and on his return 
gave a lecture on his travels before th'e Rochdale 
Literary Society. 

In 1837, Mr. Bright, having become deeply interested in 
the subject of popular education, went to Manchester to 
induce Mr. Richard Cobden to come to Rochdale, and 
speak for them in the schoolroom of the Baptist chapel. 
" I introduced myself to him," said Bright, in telling 
afterwards of this, their first meeting. " I told him 
what I wanted. His countenance lit up with pleasure to 
find that there were others that were working on this 
question, and he, without hesitation, agreed to come. He 
came, and he spoke ; and though he was then so young 
as a speaker, yet the qualities of his speech were such 
as remained with him so long as he was able to speak at 
all — clearness, logic, a conversational eloquence, a per- 



JOHN BRIGHT. 201 

suasiveness which, when conjoined with the absolute 
truth which there was in his eye and in his countenance 
— a persuasiveness which it was almost impossible to 
resist." 

From that evening, the two men, Cobden and Bright, 
became united in the closest friendship, and labored 
ever after together in a common cause, — the repeal of 
the Corn Laws, or Free Trade for England. 

In October, 1838, seven men in Manchester founded 
the National Anti-Corn-Law League ; six Scotchmen and 
one Irishman. Eichard Cobden as well as John Bright 
soon joined the Association. The merchants, traders, 
and manufacturers of Manchester soon subscribed three 
thousand pounds to help forward the agitation. 

Cobden was the son of a poor farmer, and, like John 
Bright, one of eleven children. "His mother was a 
woman of extraordinary energy, and this is the secret 
of some of his prominent excellences," says Robertson. 
She died when Richard was twenty-one. 

The boy at fifteen became a clerk in his uncle's ware- 
house in London, and later travelled to Manchester and 
other cities to sell muslins and calicoes. At twenty- 
four, he and two friends began business for themselves 
in Manchester, borrowing more than half of their little 
capital. He soon prospered, and became a man of 
means as well as of great intellectual power. 

"Few men, indeed," says John Morley, in his Life of 
Cobden, "have been more heavily weighted at the start 
than Cobden was. His family was still dogged and 
tracked from place to place by the evil genius of slipshod 
fortune. In 1829 Frederick, his brother, began the 
business of a timber merchant at Barnet, but unhappily 
the undertaking was as little successful as other things 



202 JOHN BRIGHT. 

to which, he ever put his hand. . . . William, the father, 
went to live with his son at Barnet, and amused a favor- 
ite passion by watching the hundred and twenty coaches 
which each day whirled up and down the great north 
road. Nothing prospered. Death carried off a son and 
a daughter in the same year. Frederick lost health, and 
he lost his brother's money. . . . 

" Richard Cobden, however, had energy enough and to 
spare for the rest of his family. He pressed his brother 
to join him at Manchester, where he had bought a house 
in what was then the genteel private quarter of Mosley 
Street." 

He too, like Bright, was eager for self-culture. He 
took up Latin and mathematics in his evenings. He 
published at thirty-one, two pamphlets, one on "Russia," 
and one on " England, Ireland, and America." The latter, 
at the high price of three shillings and sixpence, went 
through three editions in twelve months. He had trav- 
elled in the last-named country in 1835 ; " on the soil of 
which," he writes his brother, " I fondly hope will be 
realized some of those dreams of human exaltation, if 
not of perfection, with which I love to console myself." 

Looking down from the Alleghanies " upon the begin- 
ning of that vast extent of territory known as the great 
Mississippi Valley, which extends almost without vari- 
ation of surface to the base of the Rocky Mountains," 
he said, "Here will one day be the headquarters of 
agricultural and manufacturing industry ; here will one 
day centre the civilization, the wealth, the power, of the 
entire world." 

A friend asked him whether it would be worth while 
to go far out of one's way to see the Falls of Niagara. 
"Yes, most assuredly," he replied. "Nature has the 



JOHN BRIGHT. 203 

sublimity of rest, arid the sublimity of motion. The sub- 
limity of rest is in the great snow mountains ; the sublim- 
ity of motion is in Niagara." 

Cobden ridiculed the talk about " balance of power," 
which has so often forced England into war. His premise 
was, " No government has the right to plunge its people 
into hostilities, except in defence of their own honor and 
interests." 

" These most admirable pages were no mere rhetoric," 
says Morley. " The writer was able to point to a nation 
whose example of pacific industry, wise care of the 
education of her young, and abstinence from such infatu- 
ated intervention as ours in the affairs of others, would, 
as he warned us, one day turn us into moralists in self- 
defence, as one day it assuredly will. It is from the 
peaceful nation in the West, and not from the military 
nations of the East, that danger to our strength will 
come." 

Cobden said : " Looking to the natural endowments of 
the North American continent — as superior to Europe 
as the latter is to Africa — with an almost immeasurable 
extent of river navigation, its boundless expanse of 
the most fertile soil in the world, and its inexhaustible 
mines of coal, iron, lead, etc., — looking at these, and 
remembering the quality and position of a people uni- 
versally instructed and perfectly free, and possessing, as 
a consequence of these, a new-born energy and vitality 
very far surpassing the character of any nation of the 
Old World, the writer . . . declares his conviction that it 
is from the West, rather than from the East, that danger 
to the supremacy of Great Britain is to be apprehended ; 
that it is from the silent and peaceful rivalry of Ameri- 
can commerce, the growth of its manufactures, its rapid 



204 JOHN BRIGHT. 

progress in internal improvements, the superior educa- 
tion of its people, and their economical and pacific 
government — that it is from these, and not from the 
barbarous policy or the impoverishing armaments of 
Eussia, that the grandeur of our commercial and na- 
tional prosperity is endangered/' 

"What is striking in Cobden," says Morley, "is that 
after a lost and wasted childhood, a youth of drudgery 
in a warehouse, and an early manhood passed amid the 
rather vulgar associations of the commercial traveller, 
he should at the age of one and thirty have stepped 
forth the master of a written style which in boldness, 
freedom, correctness, and persuasive moderation, was 
not surpassed by any man then living." 

The following year, 1836, Cobden travelled to Egypt, 
Constantinople, Smyrna, Athens, and elsewhere in the 
East. He had also visited Germany, where he made a 
study of economic questions. 

This, then, was the energetic and intelligent young 
man of thirty-four, who had joined the Anti-Corn-Law 
League in Manchester. Bright was seven years younger 
than Cobden. 

The League engaged a room for their meetings in an 
upper floor on Market Street, Manchester. The room 
was divided by a red curtain, which, said Cobden, the 
committee drew across so that the small number of their 
members might not discourage them. " What a lucky 
thing it is," he said to a friend, " the monopolists cannot 
draw aside the curtain, and see how many of us there 
are ! for, if they could, they would not be much fright- 
ened." 

Early in 1839 an open-air Anti-Corn-Law meeting was 
held in The Butts, Kochdale, the speakers mounting a 



JOHN BRIGHT. 205 

wagon, and addressing three thousand persons, mostly 
working-men. Other meetings followed. A petition, 
with nine thousand seven hundred names, against the 
Corn Laws, was gotten up under the superintendence 
of Mr. Bright, and presented to the House of Commons. 
This year, 1839, in aSTovember, Mr. Bright married Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Jonathan Priestman, of Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, a young lady beloved for her Christian 
character and cultivated mind. She died in less than 
two years, leaving a little daughter, Helen, to brighten 
the stricken home. 

Mr. Bright was overwhelmed by the calamity. It was 
well that a friend was at hand to arouse him to his duty 
towards the living. He thus spoke of it years after- 
wards, in a speech at Rochdale: "In the year 1841 I 
was at Leamington, and spent several months there. It 
was near the middle of September there fell upon me 
one of the heaviest blows that can visit any man. I 
found myself left there with none living of my house 
but a motherless child. Mr. Cobden called upon me 
the day after that event, so terrible to me, and so pros- 
trating. He said, after some conversation, ' Don't allow 
this grief, great as it is, to weigh you down too much ; 
there are at this moment, in thousands of homes in this 
country, wives and children who are dying of hunger, — 
of hunger made by the law. If you will come along with 
me, we will never rest till we have got rid of the Corn 
Law.' " 

Mr. Cobden's statement was pitifully true. Harvests 
had been so poor, and food so high on account of the 
protective tariff on grain, that, says Robertson, " amongst 
the agricultural laborers, their scanty wages scarcely left 
jbhem anything for fuel, and afforded nothing for cloth- 



206 JOHN BRIGHT. 

ing. The peasantry of the South of England were re- 
duced almost to the level of Polish serfs. Their chief 
food was black bread, made of a mixture of barley-meal 
and potatoes. Their wages averaged seven shillings per 
week, and out of that sum they had to pay about one 
shilling and fourpence for rent ; and some families 
numbered six. Their pale and sunken faces too plainly 
denoted the emaciated condition they were in." 

Investigation was made among the workingmen of 
Kochdale. The report said : " Boys come for three- 
ha'porth of meal, in rags — family of seven, sober and 
industrious ; utmost wages with full work, eleven shil- 
lings to twelve shillings per week ; father, seven or eight 
shillings ; two boys, four shillings, setting cards. Only 
one bed for seven persons. Customers who used to buy 
a pound of sugar now buy a pennyworth, or a quarter of 
a pound for twopence. Tea sold in quantities as small 
as half an ounce for halfpenny. . . . Four or five in a fam- 
ily send for half an oatcake, worth halfpenny, with bits 
and scraps of bacon halfpenny or penny more. ... At 
breakfast or dinner hours, many come in for a ha'porth 
or pennyworth of bread." 

"Thousands of poor people were forced to break up 
their homes through the want of employment, and lead 
the lives of mendicants. . . . Yet at this time as many 
as five hundred carriages were to be seen daily in Hyde 
Park, chiefly belonging to the landed gentry, which 
formed a strong contrast with the deplorable condition 
of the working-class." 

The owners of great estates knew if all kinds of grain 
(or " corn " as it is called) were allowed to come from 
America and other countries, the produce of their own 
acres would be cheapened, and therefore their incomes 
decreased. 



JOHN BRIGHT. 207 

From early times, in England, there had been various 
enactments prohibiting the importation of grain, to stim- 
ulate home production. In 1815 a law was passed by 
Parliament Avhich prohibited the importation of corn 
whenever the price fell below eighty shillings a quarter. 
In consequence of great dissatisfaction, this law was 
modified from time to time. In 1828 Canning, the 
Prime Minister, introduced a " sliding-scale," which, 
when wheat was thirty-six shillings, made the duty 
fifty shillings and eightpence a quarter ; w^hen grain 
was seventy-three shillings or over, the duty was only 
one shilling. After this " sliding-scale " on grain and 
other products was enacted, it was found that the im- 
porters, often unable to sell at a profit, would pour tar 
into their casks of butter, thus avoiding the payment of 
a heavy duty. Much grain held in bond was not worth 
the cost of keeping, and was thrown into the Thames, 
under the direction of Custom-House officers. 

Matters went from bad to worse. " One week, only 
one beast was killed at Accrington, although the popu- 
lation numbered ten thousand. Twenty years previous 
to this date, when the inhabitants were not more than 
five thousand, from five to ten beasts were killed weekly 
at the same town." " A young man at Sterling, of re- 
spectable parents," says Robertson, " was observed one 
morning to pass a huckster's shop, at the door of which 
stood a measure of potatoes. After passing the shop a 
little way, he returned and took one of the potatoes, and 
went away. The shopkeeper allowed him to go. 

" On the day after, the young man returned, and did 
the same thing. On the third day he took another 
potato, and on the fourth day five potatoes. The last 
day the shopkeeper had* a police officer in attendance, 



208 JOHN BRIGHT. 

and both of them followed the young man home, and 
there they found an aged mother and two sisters de- 
pendent upon him for support. There was a pot upon 
a poor fire, and upon the shopkeeper asking the mother 
if she knew where her son got the potatoes, she replied, 
' No ; I was afraid to ask.' " 

Mr. Bright said in a public speech : " The country was 
filled with paupers, and we were now devouring each 
other. In Leeds there were forty thousand persons 
subsisting on charity. A friend of his was then in the 
room who told him that in Sheffield there were no less 
than twelve thousand paupers, and that there were as 
many more who were as badly off. These towns were 
desolated, and did they think that when the manufac- 
turing districts were involved in ruin, that London could 
be safe ? " 

Again Mr. Bright said: "It had been proved from 
accurate reports, that in some districts of Manchester 
and Leeds, 570 children, out of 1,000 who were born, 
died before they were five years of age. Amongst the 
aristocracy and persons of comfortable circumstances, 
about seventy out of 1,000 died before reaching that age ; 
and here, there were 500 children born to life and happi- 
ness, born to give comfort to their parents, and strength, 
power, and prosperity to the country, swept to an 
untimely grave by causes in no small degree to be 
attributed to the operation of these oppressive laws." 

Mr. Bright did not forget his great sorrow in the death 
of his young wife, but he gave his heart and time more 
earnestly than ever to the work of repealing the Corn 
Laws. With Cobden, he visited all the large towns, and 
spoke almost every day and every night ; reporters were 
present, and soon their burning speeches were tele- 



JOHN BRIGHT. 209 

graphed all over the kingdom. Money was subscribed 
at each meeting, towards the fifty thousand pounds they 
had determined to raise, to be spent in scattering docu- 
ments, employing lecturers, and publishing a paper, the 
Anti- Corn-Law Circular. 

The women became deeply interested in the cause, as 
women should be in everything which concerns the well- 
being of humanity. "The ladies of Lancashire,'' says 
Mr. Mongredien, in his "Free-Trade Movement in 
England," "held monster tea-meetings, at which they 
were addressed by some of the leaders of the movement." 

These great " tea-meetings " culminated in a bazaar, 
held in the Theatre Eoyal, in Manchester, Mrs. Cobden 
being president. She had been married to Eichard 
Cobden a year or two previously ; was endowed with 
singular personal beauty, and possessed manners of great 
charm and dignity. From this bazaar, which lasted ten 
days, about nine thousand pounds were obtained for the 
League. 

In January, 1843, the great "Free Trade Hall" in 
Manchester was built, a hundred and thirty-five feet by 
a hundred and five, the largest hall in the kingdom with 
one or two exceptions. Cobden gave the land, the site 
being that of the " Peterloo massacre." 

In 1819, twenty-four years previous to the opening of 
the Free Trade Hall, some fifty thousand men and 
women, with bands of music, were gathered on this site, 
to demand reform. They carried banners inscribed with 
the words, "No Corn Laws," "Suffrage Universal," 
" Parliaments Annual." The vast assembly was orderly 
and attentive. As the chairman began his address, the 
Manchester and Salford cavalry dashed into the crowd, 
cutting their way without respect to age or sex. The 



210 JOHN BRIGHT. 

Riot Act had been read, but few were aware of it. In 
ten minutes the place was deserted. " Over the whole 
field were strewn caps, bonnets, hats, shawls, and shoes, 
and other parts of male and female dress, trampled, torn 
and bloody. The yeomanry had dismounted ; some were 
easing their horses' girths, others adjusting their 
accoutrements, and some wiping their sabres. Several 
mounds of human beings still remained where they had 
fallen, crushed down and smothered. Some of them 
were still groaning, others with staring eyes were gasping 
for breath, and others would never breathe more. All 
was silent, save those low sounds, and the occasional 
snorting and pawing of steeds." It was indeed fitting 
that this reform building should be placed on the spot 
where the right of free speech had been stifled in 
blood two decades before. 

At the first meeting in the Free Trade Hall, on Jan- 
uary 30, 1843, over seven thousand persons were present. 
A month later, ten thousand persons were assembled. 
Already two thousand lectures had been delivered in 
favor of repeal ; over five million Anti-Corn-Law tracts 
had been circulated, the whole involving an expenditure 
of one hundred thousand pounds. Surely somebody 
was in earnest. 

Cobden had become a member of Parliament, though 
he declined at first. " I offered," he said, " to give a 
hundred pounds towards the expenses • of another 
candidate in my stead for Stockport, and to canvass for 
him for a week; and it was only when the electors 
declared that they could not agree to another, and would 
not be able to oust the bread-taxers without me, that I 
consented to stand." 

In April, 1843, Mr. Bright, then thirty-two years of 



JOHN BRIGHT. 211 

age, was asked to stand for Durham, as there was a 
vacant seat in Parliament for that town. He received 
a greater number of votes than any Liberal since the 
passage of the Eeform Bill in 1832, but his opponent, 
Lord Dungannon, was the successful candidate. 

Mr. Bright said : " When it was remembered that the 
whole expenses he had incurred did not exceed fifty or 
sixty pounds, and that not a farthing had been expended 
for drink, not a farthing in bribes, not a farthing which 
he could not expose to his opponent, or any other person, 
he did think that, considering all these things, the result 
was not to be considered in the light of a defeat, but as 
affording hope of a not very distant triumph." 

Soon after, it was proved that Lord Dungannon had 
been returned through bribery, his agents paying large 
sums to electors. The election was therefore declared 
void, and Mr. Bright was again asked to be the candidate. 

He made an eloquent address. " There have been 
convulsions," he said, " of a most dire character, which 
have overturned old established monarchies, and have 
hurled thrones and sceptres to the dust. There have 
been revolutions which have brought down most powerful 
aristocracies, and swept them from the face of the earth 
forever. But never was there a revolution yet, which 
destroyed the people. And whatever may come as a 
consequence of the state of things in this country, of 
this we may rest assured, that the common people, that 
the great bulk of our countrymen, will remain and sur- 
vive the shock, though it may be that the crown, and the 
aristocracy, and the church, may be levelled with the 
dust, and rise no more. ... 

" We have a right to clamor ; and so long as I have 
breath, so long as I have physical power, so long as I 



212 JOHN BRIGHT. 

have intellect, and so long as I have memory and voice 
to express opinion, so long will I clamor against the 
oppression which I see to exist, and in favor of the 
rights of the great body of the people." 

Mr. Bright was elected, and the town gave itself up to 
rejoicing. Every window along the street was crowded 
with ladies, who waved their handkerchiefs and ribbons, 
There was one continual cheer from the immense con- 
course of people, as he passed along the street. Eoch- 
dale was of course proud of him. Cobden congratulated 
him, and said, "I've had all the dirt thrown at me 
heretofore ; now you, being younger, will share it with 
me, and probably get the largest share. You'll have it 
in style in the House of Commons." 

He made his first speech in Commons soon after his 
entrance, upon the reduction of import duties. He was 
a trifle nervous at first, but thrusting his hand into the 
breast of his waistcoat, he soon recovered his self-pos- 
session, and spoke with his rare simplicity and masterly 
eloquence. In the autumn of 1843, September 28, 
Bright spoke at the first Anti-Corn-Law League monthly 
meeting, held in Covent Garden Theatre, London, and a 
month later at the same place. The stage, pit, boxes, 
and gallery were crowded to their utmost capacity. 

"We have seen," he said, "fallacy after fallacy scat- 
tered to the winds ; we have seen foe after foe driven 
from every field ; we have seen triumph after triumph 
achieved; and now, from that small room in which 
seven men met, we are here assembled in this gorgeous 
building, and with this great, this magnificent audience. 
And it can be but the harbinger of the triumph of this 
great cause. . . . 

" We might lay the whole world under contribution if 



JOHN BRIGHT. 213 

we had free trade. All nature lies extended before us ; 
her vast treasure-houses are open to us, — there is noth- 
ing that is good for man under the sun that may not 
be brought to England in return for the produce of 
England's industry. . . . 

" And when our labors are over, whe^i our warfare is 
accomplished, our consolation and our reward shall be — 
and every man who has helped us shall participate in it — 
that in our day and generation we have been permitted 
to advance at least one great step toward the glorious 
and the promised time, when human laws shall harmonize 
with the sublime injunction of the Christian code, and 
when man, as an individual or in communities, shall 
accept and obey that divinest precept of them all : 
'Whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them/' " 

Night after night, when not busy in the House of 
Commons, Bright, Cobden, and others continued to speak 
to enthusiastic audiences. Cobden was persuasive, con- 
versational, clear, argumentative ; Bright impassioned, 
earnest, with a vein of humor, poetical, powerful. He 
had studied history carefully, that he might know the 
causes of the rise and fall of nations ; he had loved the 
Bible and Milton from a child, and had made them his 
daily study. 

The struggle against the Corn Laws went on. Every 
year, Mr. Charles Yilliers, an able member of the 
aristocracy, moved in the House of Commons the total 
and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. Like all 
reforms it was first heartily laughed at, then year by year 
the number against it grew less and less. 

Thomas Carlyle took up the cause. He said, " If I 
were the conservative party of England, I would not for 



214 JOHN BRIGHT. 

a hundred thousand pounds an hour allow those Corn 
Laws to continue. All Potosi and Golconda put together 
would not purchase my assent to them. Do you count 
what treasures of bitter indignation they are laying up 
for you in every just English heart ? " 

On May 8, 1845, a great bazaar was opened in Coven t 
Garden Theatre, London, with four hundred ladies as 
saleswomen. The costliest products of the loom, the 
daintiest work of woman's hands, were voluntary offer- 
ings to the cause. Over one hundred and twenty-five 
thousand persons visited the bazaar, and it yielded over 
twenty-five thousand dollars to the League. The papers 
gave glowing accounts of it ; people talked about it at 
every fireside, and all this helped to agitate the question. 

A novel feature for making money, and at the same 
time disseminating knowledge, was a post-office. The 
visitor inquired for a letter, and at the regular rate for 
non-prepaid letters, was given a package which contained 
a full assortment of the tracts of the League. These 
were carried home, and helped to do effective work. 

Eichard Cobden, who had left his business, which was 
netting him over ten thousand pounds a year, largely 
in the hands of his brothers, had now become so 
embarrassed financially that he felt he must give up the 
Corn Law agitation, if he would provide for his family. 
It was a bitter alternative. The one object of his life, 
for which he had sacrificed all, must be put aside. He 
at once wrote to Mr. Bright, who answered with all the 
tenderness of a woman : " Be assured that in all this 
disappointment you have my heartfelt sympathy. We 
have worked long and hard and cordially together ; and 
I can say most truly that the more I have known of you, 
the more have I had reason to admire and esteem you j 



JOHN BRIGHT. 215 

and now when a heavy cloud seems upon us, I must 
not wholly give up the hope that we may yet labor in 
the good cause until all is gained for which we have 
striven." 

Mr. Bright soon reached Manchester, and he and 
another friend or two procured the means whereby for 
the time Mr. Cobden was relieved from money difficul- 
ties, and again gave himself unreservedly to the Repeal. 
When asked by a friend how he could either work or 
rest with such sorrows hanging over him, he replied, 
" Oh ! when I am about public affairs I never think of 
it ; it does not touch me ; I am asleep the moment my 
head is on the pillow." He said, later in life, " If I had 
not the faculty of sleeping like a dead fish, in five minutes 
after the most exciting mental effort, and with the cer- 
tainty of having oblivion for six consecutive hours, I 
should not have been alive now." 

Again the two men labored day and night for the 
measure. They were away from their families so con- 
stantly, that Mr. Cobden's only son Eichard used to ask 
in his childish simplicity, when his father came to see 
them, " When he was going home ? " thinking he must 
live in some other city. Mr. Bright spoke in no un- 
certain terms in the House of Commons : '^ It is the 
remark of a beautiful writer, that ' to have known noth- 
ing but misery is the most portentous condition under 
which human nature can start on its course.' Has your 
agricultural laborer ever known anything but misery ? 
He is born in a miserable hovel, which in mockery is 
termed a house or a home ; he is reared in penury ; he 
passes a life of hopeless and unrequited toil, and the 
jail or the union house is before him as the only asylum 
on this side of the pauper's grave. Is this the result of 



216 JOHN BBIGUT. 

your protection to native industry ? Have you cared 
for the laborer till, from a home of comfort, he has but 
a hovel for shelter ? and have you cherished him into 
starvation and rags ? I tell you what your boasted pro- 
tection is, — it is a protection of native idleness at the 
expense of the impoverishment of native industry." 

In the Free Trade Hall, Bright said : " We are enter- 
ing the seventh year of our labors in this great cause, 
and there may be some who at the thought of this 
despond. If there be any who have a right to despond, 
or who might be forgiven if they feel faint-hearted, it is 
surely those who have labored hard in this cause ; but as 
far as the council of the League are concerned, I can 
state to this meeting and the public that there was never 
a time when they were more convinced than they are 
now that they were right in the beginning, and are 
right still, and that in their cause, as in all others, right 
must speedily triumph. . . . 

" I often wonder why it is that men are so willing to 
bow their necks to men w^ho are ornamented with stars 
and garters and titles ; for I am sure, the more I come 
in contact with their characters, the more I come to the 
conclusion that it is something far beyond titles which 
constitutes true nobility of character. 

"And there is not any creature that crawls the earth, 
to my mind, more despicable and more pitiable than the 
man who sacrifices the interests of his own class, of his 
own order, and of his own country, merely that he may 
toady somebody who has a title to his name." 

A friend once asked Mr. Bright, after his return from 
one of his arduous lecture tours, if, after so much oppo- 
sition, he really expected success at the last. The 
unconquerable John Bright replied : " One day lately I 



JOHN B BIGHT. 217 

was going along the road, and I saw a man breaking 
stones ; lie was hammering away at a very large stone 
with a hammer that had a long handle but a very small 
head. Well, I thought, what a simpleton this man is ! 
why does he not use a sledge-hammer and break it at 
once ? However, he kept knocking and knocking for 
some time, when at last the stone flew in pieces ; and I 
at once saw that if we kept persevering in our attacks, 
the Corn Laws will go just as suddenly." 

The Corn Laws were, in fact, " going suddenly," and 
the time was drawing near. The harvest of 1845, owing 
to frequent rains, was very poor, and famine stared the 
people in the face. The potato crop in Ireland was a 
failure. The League redoubled its efforts. It was 
decided to raise two hundred and fifty thousand pounds 
at once. At a large meeting in Manchester, sixty thou- 
sand pounds were subscribed in an hour and a half, John 
Bright and his brothers giving one thousand pounds. 

Bright spoke to an audience in Covent Garden Theatre, 
packed from floor to roof. " Multitudes," he said, " have 
died of hunger in the United Kingdom since we first 
asked the Government to repeal the Corn Law ; and 
although the great and the powerful may not regard 
those who suffer mutely and die in silence, yet the 
recording angel will note down their patient endurance, 
and the heavy guilt of those by whom they have been 
sacrificed." 

Many persons added fuel to the flame by their cruel, 
if well-meant, suggestions. The Duke of Norfolk rec- 
ommended the poor " to feed upon warm water and 
curry powder ! " 

Sir Eobert Peel had become Prime Minister in 1841, 
with the understanding that he would sustain the Corn 



218 JOHN BRIGHT. 

Laws. Lord Melbourne, his predecessor, had said two 
years previously, " To leave the whole agricultural 
interest without protection, I declare before God that I 
think it the wildest and maddest scheme that has ever 
entered into the imagination of man to conceive." 
The " sliding scale " of Sir Eobert was passed in 1842. 
He was pressed on every side. Lord John Russell, after- 
wards Prime Minister, wrote from Edinburgh to his con- 
stituents, the electors of the City of London, that he was 
in favor of the total repeal of the Corn Laws. " The 
government," he said, "appear to be waiting for some 
excuse to give up the present Corn Laws. Let the 
people, by petition, by address, by remonstrance, afford 
them "the excuse they seek." He believed the system 
"had been proved to be the blight of commerce, the 
bane of agriculture, the source of bitter division among 
classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, and crime 
among the people." 

Macaulay had also become a convert to the new doc- 
trine. He told Lord John Kussell that " he stipulated 
for one thing only, — total and immediate repeal of the 
Corn Laws." 

Bright was giving well-directed blows. " Sir Eobert 
Peel," he said, " came from the very county where the 
League had its origin ; and his fortune was made out of 
those little delicate fibres of cotton which are destined 
yet to revolutionize and change the face of things in 
this country. He sprang from commerce ; and until he 
has proved it himself, I will never believe that there is 
any man — much less will I believe that he is the man — 
who would go down to his grave having had the power 
to deliver that commerce, and yet not having the manli- 
ness, honesty, and courage to do it." 



JOHN BRIGHT. 219 

The Protectionists, with Mr. Disraeli at their head, 
felt that Peel was going over to Pree Trade. " For my 
part," said Benjamin Disraeli, "if we are to have free 
trade, I, who honor genius, prefer that such measures 
should be proposed by the honorable member for Stock- 
port [Cobden], than by one who, though skilled in par- 
liamentary manoeuvres, has tampered with the generous 
confidence of a great people and of a great party." 

On January 27, 1846, the beginning of the end had 
come. The House of Commons was crowded by the 
distinguished of the realm. Peel unfolded his plan of 
Free Trade : gradual repeal of the Corn Laws, with com- 
plete free trade in corn after three years. The debate 
was adjourned to February 9, and was continued till the 
16th. On the latter evening Peel rose to speak at a 
quarter before ten, and closed a powerful and earnest 
speech at one o'clock. The following evening Bright 
spoke. Eeferring to PeePs address, he called it : " An 
address, I will venture to say, more powerful and more 
to be admired than any address which has been deliv- 
ered in this House within the memory of any member 
of it. 

" I watched the right honorable baronet, as he went 
home last night, and for the first time I envied his 
feelings. That address has been circulated by scores 
of thousands throughout this kingdom, and is speeding 
to every part of the world; and wherever there is a 
man who loves justice, and wherever there is a suffer- 
ing creature whom you [referring to the Protectionists] 
have trampled under foot, that address will give joy to 
the heart of the one, and hope to the heart of the other." 

The debate was continued on February 19, 20, 23, to 
the 27th, and through the whole of March to the 27th. 



220 JOHN B BIGHT. 

Meantime trade became more and more disturbed 
through this agitated condition of the country. On 
May 4 the debate was renewed, and continued till the 
morning of the 16th, when, at half-past four, as the 
sun rose and streamed into the House, the Bill for 
Free Trade passed by a majority of ninety-eight. On 
June 25 the Bill passed the House of Lords, largely 
through the influence of the Duke of Wellington, who, 
though he believed in protection, wished "to support 
Sir Bobert Peel's administration of the government for 
the Queen." "A good government for the country," said 
the old warrior, "is more important than Corn Laws 
or any other consideration." 

As Peel expected, he was soon obliged to resign 
through a combination of the votes of the Opposition 
and the Protectionists. He made his closing and elo- 
quent speech June 29. 

The little band of seven men in the upper room in 
Manchester had accomplished their marvellous work. 

On July 8, 1846, Bochdale celebrated the triumph of 
their famous townsman, then under thirty-five years of 
age. A procession of the trades was formed : the corn- 
millers carried a huge loaf weighing sixty pounds, with 
the names of Cobden and Bright on the sides. There 
were twelve thousand persons on foot behind the num- 
erous carriages. The seven hundred who worked for the 
Messrs. Bright carried twenty-five silk flags. Houses 
along the route were decorated w^ith banners and 
flowers. 

Mr. Bright said in his speech to the people, in his 
hope for a better state of things : " Not that people can 
live without work, or have large incomes without toiling 
at some honest industry. . . . We shall have a steadier 



JOHN BRIGHT. 221 

trade^ a steadier increase of prosperity, a steadier profit for 
capital, steadier wages for work-people, and I trust that 
these things shall cause a continuance of that harmony 
and good feeling which now happily prevail amongst all 
classes in this great populous manufacturing district." 

The League was disbanded July 2, and its members 
turned themselves to other work. Cobden, having be- 
come a poor man, — his business had been prostrated 
through his neglect, — was presented, in 1848, by his 
friends, with £76,759. He lost considerable of this in 
investments in American railways, and in 1860 his friends 
gave him £40,000 more. 

Mr. Bright was presented with a library of twelve hun- 
dred volumes, history, biography, and poetry, in an oak 
bookcase. The supports between the glass panels are 
elaborately carved with sheaves of corn, figs, grapes, 
apples, and pears, while surmounting the cornice is a 
vessel homeward bound, and on the quay representations 
of barrels of flour and bales of cotton. 

John Bright's voice had not been silent about other 
matters during these years. He vigorously opposed the 
Game Laws, and at his own expense of £300 published 
evidence laid before a select committee which he moved 
in the House of Commons. He said to the farmers : 
" You take a farm on a yearly tenancy, or on a lease, 
with an understanding, or a specific agreement, that the 
game shall be reserved to the owner. . . . You plough 
and sow, and watch the growing crops with anxiety and 
hope ; you rise early, and eat the bread of carefulness ; 
rent day comes twice a year, with its inexorable demand ; 
and yet you are doomed too frequently to see the fertil- 
ity which Providence bestows and your industry would 
secure, blighted and destroyed by creatures which would 



222 JOHN BRIGHT. 

be deemed vermin but for the sanction which the law 
and your customs give to their preservation, and which 
exist for no advantage to you and for no good to the 
public, but solely to afford a few days' amusement in 
the year to the proprietor of the soil. 

" The seed you sow is eaten by the pheasants ; your 
young growing grain is bitten down by the hares and 
rabbits ; and your ripening crops are trampled and in- 
jured by a live stock which yields you no return." 

Mr. Bright opposed the Ten-Hours Bill for the factory 
operatives. ^^ He believed that parliamentary interven- 
tion in the relations between capital and labor would 
prove radically injurious to both, and that an enlight- 
ened public opinion and the infallible action of economic 
law would give to the working-classes the power to right 
their own wrongs.'' 

As John Bright had built a commodious schoolhouse 
near his mills, for the use of the children of his work- 
people, where on four nights a week instruction was 
given to young people; as his firm defrayed the ex- 
penses of a course of lectures each winter, and paid 
three-fourths of the expenses of a teacher to give in- 
struction in music to the employes, provided them a 
library of nearly a thousand volumes, with papers and 
magazines, the cost of membership being a penny a week, 
and employed a person to give his whole time in looking 
after the needs and comforts of all the families, — it was, 
perhaps, quite natural for him to suppose that no inter- 
vention was needed between capital and labor. 

He had the courage to say, when he was a candidate 
for Manchester, and was hissed because he opposed the 
bill, " Well, I may be wrong ; but if I am wrong, I am 
wrong in ignorance and not in intention. I boldly stated 



JOHN BRIGHT. 223 

my opinion ; . . . henceforth, we shall have an oppor- 
tunity of seeing which is right, — the advocates of the 
measure, or its opponents. If it be successful, I shall 
rejoice ; if it be not, I shall be willing to help in its 
amendment." When his own workmen labored for the 
bill, and it was prophesied that they would lose their 
places in consequence, — the prophets were mistaken. 
Honest John Bright believed in the liberty of every 
human being. He would not interfere with the opinions 
of others, for he had too often said in public, ^' Liberty 
is too precious and sound a thing ever to be intrusted to 
the keeping of another man. Be the guardians of your 
own rights and liberties ; if you be not, you will have no 
protectors, but spoilers of all that you possess." 

The Ten-Hours Bill was carried in 1847. The lessen- 
ing of hours proved a blessing to the laborers, though, 
like the repeal of the Corn Laws, it was not obtained 
till after many, many years of struggle. 

On June 10, 1847, Mr. Bright married the daughter 
of Mr. William Leatham, a banker. In accordance with 
the ceremony of the " Friends," in their meeting-house, 
Mr. Bright took the right hand of the bride, saying : 
"Friends, I take my friend Margaret Elizabeth Leatham 
to be my wife, promising, through Divine assistance, to 
be unto her a loving and faithful husband until it shall 
please the Lord by death to separate us." After her 
response, some moments of silence ensued, when one 
of the congregation offered prayer, the whole assembly 
standing. The certificate or declaration of marriage 
was then read, and signed by a large number of the 
congregation. 

It had been six years since " the light and sunshine 
of his home had been extinguished" in the death of 



224 JOHN BRIGHT. 

Elizabeth Priestman, and he had left to him. only ^^ the 
memory of a sainted life and a too brief happiness." 

He brought his bride to his home in Rochdale, called 
" One Ash," from a solitary ash-tree which grew on the 
site. " Money-ash," or " Many-ash," was the house of 
John Grattan, in Derbyshire, a Quaker preacher, who 
died in 1712. He was arrested several times for preach- 
ing, lingered in jail five years, speaking of his faith to 
the populace from behind the gratings of his cell. His 
memory was treasured by the "Friends." John Bright's 
father had been fined again and again for not paying 
Church rates, so that the devotion of the family to the 
Quaker faith grew stronger and stronger. " One Ash," 
in the integrity, fearlessness, and eloquence of its owner, 
became a counterpart of "Many-ash" in Derbyshire. 

The home was indeed a rest to the man who had 
given seven years of untiring effort to the repeal of the 
Corn Laws. His evenings were spent in reading or con- 
versing with Mrs. Bright. In the course of years, seven 
children were born in the home, and in them Mr. Bright 
found his comfort and joy. 

The library and the dining-room were set apart to 
the brain-worker, so that as he thought, or wrote, or 
read, as he tired of one he strolled into the other for a 
change. Relieved of all domestic care by his efficient 
wife, he gave his time to the nation, and England has 
been the greater and better for the gift. 

The famine in Ireland, which hastened the repeal of 
the Corn Laws, had destroyed food to the value of 
£16,000,000. Crimes had increased to an alarming ex- 
tent, and a Coercion Bill was proposed in the House of 
Commons. Mr. Bright had studied Ireland, and knew 
her wrongs. He presented a petition signed by twenty 



JOHN BRIGHT. 225 

thousand residents of Manchester, against the bill, but it 
passed. He said before the House : " It is the duty of 
Government to bring in a Sale of Estates Bill, and 
make it easy for land-owners who wish to dispose of 
their estates, to do so. . . . They should pass a law by 
which the system of entailing estates should for the 
future be prevented. [Laughter.] I can assure honor- 
able gentlemen who laugh at this, that at some not- 
distant day, this must be done, and not only in Ireland 
only, but in England also. It is an absurd and mon- 
strous system, for it binds, as it were, the living under 
the power of the dead. . . . 

"Perhaps I shall be told that the laws of entail and 
primogeniture are necessary for the maintenance of our 
aristocratic institutions ; but if the evils of Ireland 
spring from this source, I say, perish your aristocratic 
institutions, rather than that a whole nation should be 
in this terrible condition. If your aristocratic families 
would rear up their children in habits of business, and 
with some notions of duty and prudence, these mischiev-. 
ous arrangements would not be required, and they would 
retain in their possession estates at least as large as 
is compatible with the interests of the rest of the 
community." • 

Again, he said : " Look at Ireland ; you have there 
forty thousand men maintained out of the taxes, and 
another ten thousand, also maintained out of the taxes, 
— in the shape of armed police. Eifty thousand men 
in Ireland, armed to keep the peace, under a system 
where peace is impossible, in a country, where, for 
years, the misgovernment was such that in Europe it 
found no parallel. In that unfortunate country you 
witness a landed proprietary, all of whose inclinations 



226 JOBN BRIGHT. 

and feelings were in direct hostility to the population 
where their estates were situate ; and there the proprie- 
tors now are reduced to beggary and ruin — and paupers 
crawl up their staircases and halls. ... It is to uphold 
such a system that this vast force has been kept in 
Ireland.'^ 

When the Crimean War became imminent in 1853, 
Mr. Bright used all his eloquence and power against it. 
Palmerston Avas for war, the press and people became 
eager to cripple Russia, and Bright spoke to deaf ears. 
A later generation has learned to love peace and seek 
it, under the teaching of so great a master. 

" What is war ? " he asked. " I believe that half 
the people that talk about war have not the slightest 
idea of what it is. In a short sentence it may be 
summed up to be the combination and concentration 
of all the horrors, atrocities, crimes, and sufferings of 
which human nature on this globe is capable. . . . 

" If you want war, let it be for something that has at 
least the features of grandeur and of nobility about it, 
but not for the miserable, decrepit, moribund govern- 
ment which is now enthroned, but which cannot last 
long, in the city of Constantinople. . . . They tell us, if 
Kussia gets to Constantinople, Englishmen will not be 
able to get to India by the overland journey. . . . Tliey 
tell us, further, that the Emperor of Russia would get 
India. That is a still more remote contingency. If I 
were asked as to the probabilities of it, I should say 
that, judging from our past and present policy in Asia, 
we are more likely to invade Russia from India than 
Russia is to invade us in India. The policy we pursue 
in Asia is much more aggressive, aggrandizing, and war- 
like than any that Russia has pursued or threatened 
during our time. 



JOHN inur.iiT. 227 

"But it is just possible that Russia may be more 
powerful by acquiring Turkey. ... I should like to 
ask whether, even if that be true, it is a suiSicient 
reason for our going to war, and entering on what, per- 
haps, may be a long, ruinous, and sanguinary struggle 
with a powerful empire like Russia. . . . 

"I confess, when I think of the tremendous perils 
into which unthinking men — men who do not intend 
to fight themselves — are willing to drag or to hurry 
this country, I am amazed how they can trifle with in- 
terests so vast, and consequences so much beyond their 
calculation." 

Bright looked forward to the day in Britain (and God 
speed it in America as well !) when the people and the 
churches " shall not only accept and believe in the 
prophecy, but labor earnestly for its fulfilment, that 
there shall come a time — a blessed time — a time which 
shall last forever — when 'nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." " 

The words of President Grant may well be remem- 
bered : '' Though I have been trained as a soldier, and 
participated in many battles, there never was a time 
when, in my opinion, some way could not be found of 
preventing the drawing of the sword. I look forward to 
an epoch when a great recognized Committee of Nations 
will settle international differences, instead of keeping 
large standing armies as they do in Europe." 

When Bright was asked to attend a meeting in Man- 
chester for the War Fund, he replied : " I will have no 
part in this terrible crime. My hands shall be unstained 
with the blood which is being shed. . . . You have read 
the tidings from the Crimea. . . . Russians, in their 
frenzy or their terror, shooting Englishmen who would 



228 JOHN BRIGHT. 

have offered them water to quench their agony of thirst ; 
Englishmen, in crowds, rifling the pockets of the men 
they had slain or wounded, taking their few shillings or 
roubles, and discovering among the plunder of the 
stiffening corpses, images of the Virgin and the Child. 
. . . This is war, — every crime which human nature 
can commit or imagine, every horror it can perpetrate 
or suffer ; and this it is which our Christian govern- 
ment recklessly plunges into, and which so many of 
our countrymen at this moment think it patriotic to 
applaud ! " 

This letter was widely circulated in Russia, and pro- 
voked great discussion and displeasure at home. 

For upwards of two years. Bright opposed the war 
party in the House of Commons, almost alone. ^'Even' 
if I were alone," he said, " if my voice were the solitary 
one raised amid the din of arms and the clamors of a 
venal press, I should have the consolation I have to- 
night — and which I trust will be mine to the last 
moment of my existence — the priceless consolation that 
I have never uttered one word that could promote the 
squandering of my country's treasure, or the spilling of 
one single drop of my country's blood." 

His memorable speech, to a hushed audience, in the 
House, on February 23, 1855, is probably in every ora- 
torical collection on both continents : " The Angel of 
Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may 
almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one, 
as when the first-born were slain of old, to sprinkle with 
blood the lintel and the two sideposts of our doors, that 
he may spare and pass on. He takes his victims from 
the castle of the noble, the mansion of the wealthy, 
and the cottage of the poor and the lowly ; and it is on 



JOHN BRIGHT. 229 

behalf of all these classes that I make this solemn 
appeal." 

The war spirit grew stronger ; Mr. Bright was hissed 
and hooted by mobs, " burnt," he says, " in effigy by 
those I was most anxious to serve," and finally both he 
and Cobden lost their seats in Parliament. 

Cobden, in 1856, had buried his only son, a promising 
youth of fifteen, who died away from home at school ; 
died, and was buried, from an attack of scarlet fever, 
before his parents knew of his illness. Cobden could 
never be the same after it; and nine years later, just 
before he died, in 1865, he said to Bright as they strolled 
out in the fields together at his home at Midhurst, point- 
ing to a little church near by, " Yes ; my poor boy lies 
there, and I shall very soon be with him." Cobden de- 
clined the offer of a baronetcy from Lord Palmerston, 
preferring, like Michael Faraday, to be plain Richard 
Cobden to the last. He also refused the position of 
Chairman of the Board of Audit, worth £2,000 a year, 
from a fear that his health would not permit the complete 
performance of his duties. Mr. Bright's health had 
broken, through the strain of parliamentary work for 
nearly fifteen years, and when he suffered defeat at the 
hands of the Manchester people, he was already in Italy, 
trying to regain his strength. 

While at Nice, the Empress of Eussia, who was stay- 
ing there, invited him to an interview. " I know you 
have been just to my country," said the Empress ; and 
Mr. Bright responded, that he had wished to be, and 
believed he had been, just to both countries. 

There was deep regret in many quarters, that " the 
greatest living orator, after wasting his health and 
perilling his life in the people's cause," should have been 
defeated. 



230 JOHN BRIGHT. 

Almost immediately on Mr. Bright's return from Italy 
— he had been absent from England nearly a j^ear — he 
was elected to Parliament from Birmingham, August 10, 
1857. When he made his first speech, after his return, 
on October 27, 1858, the great Town Hall could not 
accommodate the thousands who crowded to gain admit- 
tance. It was always interesting in later years to watch 
John Bright as he came into the great Birmingham 
depot, either going to or from his home at Rochdale. 
The white-haired man seemed unconscious that great 
crowds were surging around him, and saying with hushed 
reverence, " That's Bright ! that's Bright ! " 

Mr. Bright was sometimes accused of trying to "Ameri- 
canize British institutions," because he favored an ex- 
tension of the suffrage, and, "as a guaranty to the 
independence of the voter, the protection of the ballot." 
He said, — and it would be well for Americans to re- 
member and cherish the words, — "I believe that free- 
dom can only be extended and retained by a fair and 
honest representation of the people." 

He said, with impassioned eloquence, when pleading 
for the vote : " Who have been your rulers for genera- 
tions back ? Who have squandered your money ? 
Who have shed your blood ? For whom have the peo- 
ple of England toiled, and sweated, and bled for gen- 
erations back, and with what result ? Why, to be 
insulted now in the year 1859, and told with lordly 
arrogance, that it is not fitting that they should be 
admitted to the exercise of the franchise. . . . 

" Shall seventy-five millions of pounds sterling in 
taxes — seventy-five millions, the produce of human 
labor — shall this be annually raised and spent, and 
shall six millions of Englishmen, who have had tlie 



JOBN BRIGHT. 231 

main power in raising it, have no further concern in 
the matter ? Shall every workingman give, as I believe 
he does give, at least two hours extra per day of toil and 
of sweat to support a government whose policy he can 
in no degree influence, and which shuts him out from 
the commonest rights of citizenship, and spurns him as 
though he were but a wild beaSt in human form ? . . . 

'^ It will come. It may be delayed, but it cannot be 
prevented. It will come by honest, enlightened, and 
safe steps, such as we recommend, or it will come, has- 
tened by some great accident which none of us now 
foresee, and may bring about changes and feelings which 
may shake our political and social fabric to its base. . . . 
It is because I wish England to be great, and glorious, 
and free, and moral, that I urge the working-classes 
amongst my countrymen, the unfranchised millions, to 
insist upon their just rights." 

Bright lived to see the reforms accomplished for 
which he had labored, but not till Hyde Park riots and 
great gatherings of men had shown the legislators that 
the people were in earnest. 

The first great reform in the franchise, after 1832, was 
won in 1867, under Gladstone. The first of a series of 
" Reform Demonstrations " was held at Birmingham, 
August 27, 1866. Six platforms were erected in Brookes 
Field, and one hundred and fifty thousand men were 
present to hear the addresses of Bright and others. At 
Manchester, September 24, eighty thousand men gathered 
to demand the extension of suffrage. When Bright ap- 
peared before them, the entire mass waved their hats 
and handkerchiefs, and sang " Auld Lang Syne." He 
spoke in Glasgow, October 16, one hundred and thirty 
thousand people being on the grounds. After an im- 



232 JOHN BRIGHT. 

mense meeting in Dublin, Bright spoke in London 
December 3. Over one hundred thousand persons 
walked in the procession. In some cities the proces- 
sions demanding reform were four miles long. Thus 
earnest is the English nation when once it is aroused. 

Bright, the great "master of monosyllables," swayed 
them by his simple eloquence. " He was, and delighted 
to be," said Gladstone, after his death, " one of the chief 
guardians among us of the purity of the English tongue. 
He knew how the character of a nation is associated 
with its language, and he was enabled as an Englishman 
profoundly attached to his country — the tongue of the 
people being to him almost an object of worship — to 
preserve the purity of the language of Shakespeare and 
Milton." While he swayed by his fervid, Anglo-Saxon 
speech, he kept the people calm by a tremendous power 
in himself. " Many of you have stood," he said in that 
marvellously clear, resonant voice, " as I have often 
stood, on the sea-shore, in an hour of quiet and of calm. 
No tempest drives the waves : the wind is but a whisper : 
and yet the tide comes on as by some latent and mys- 
terious power. The loiterers on the beach are driven 
from point to point as the waves advance, and at length 
the whole vast basin of the ocean seems filled to the 
brim. 

" So on this question : there is no violence nor even 
menace of force ; but opinion grows, its tide moves on ; 
opposition, ignorant on the one hand, insolent on the 
other, falls back, and shortly we shall see barriers thrown 
down, privilege and monopoly swept away, a people 
enfranchised, and the measure of their freedom full. 
You have honored me by committing this great cause in 
part to my keeping. I may defend it feebly. I may 



JOHN BRIGHT. 283 

fall from the ranks before it is won ; but of one thing 
you may be sure, I shall never betray it." 

" Bright's style of speaking," says McCarthy, " was 
pure to austerity ; it was stripped of all superfluous 
ornament. It never gushed or foamed. The first pecu- 
liarity that struck the listener was its superb self- 
restraint. . . . The fire of his eloquence was a white 
heat, intense, consuming, but never sparkling or sput- 
tering." . . . 

If America had had no Civil War, Mr. Bright would 
have been remembered by us as a great orator, who was 
in favor of peace, liberty, education, and national honor, 
but now he is revered by every American as the man 
who, above all others, was our outspoken, earnest, 
beloved friend, in the days of our supreme trial and 
sorrow. 

When the Southern ports were blockaded, and the 
manufacturing towns in England were deprived of cotton, 
great suffering resulted among the tens of thousands 
thrown out of work in the cotton mills. The Messrs. 
Bright, themselves of course crippled in business, not 
only aided their workmen to live, but opened schools for 
adults, so that their time might be well used. 

John Bright's first public speech in behalf of the 
Union was at Rochdale, August 1, 1(S61, soon after the 
war began. " No man is more in favor of peace than I 
am," he said; "no man has denounced war more than 
I have, probably, in this country ; few men, in their 
public life, have suffered more obloquy — I had almost 
said, more indignity — in consequence of it. But I can- 
not for the life of me see, upon any of these principles 
upon which states are governed now, — I say nothing of 
the literal word of the New Testament — I cannot see 



234 JOHN BRIGHT. 

how the state of affairs in America, with regard to the 
United States Government, could have been different 
from what it is at this moment. . . . 

"If the thirty -three or thirty-four States of the 
American Union can break off whenever they like, I 
can see nothing but disaster and confusion throughout 
the whole of that continent. I say that the war, be it 
successful or not, be it Christian or not, be it wise or 
not, is a war to sustain the government, and to sustain 
the authority of a great nation ; and that tlie people of 
England, if they are true to their own sympathies, to 
their own history, . . . will have no sympathy with 
those who wish to build up a great empire on the per- 
petual bondage of millions of their fellow-men." 

He said, six months later, on the seizure of Mason 
and Slidell on board the Trent, after speaking of the 
greatness of America, and counselling calmness in 
judgment and procedure, "If the American government 
believe, on the opinion of their law officers, that the act 
is illegal, I have no doubt they will make fitting repara- 
tion ; for there is no government in the world that 
has so strenuously insisted upon modifications of inter- 
national law, and been so anxious to be guided always 
by the most moderate and merciful interpretation of 
that law. . . . 

" I will undertake to say, that when you hear from 
the United States Government — if they think the act 
legal — a statement of their view of the case, they will 
show you that, fifty or sixty years ago, during the wars 
of that time, there were scores of cases that were at 
least as bad as this, and some infinitely worse. ... I 
could easily place before you cases of wonderful outrage 
committed by us when we were at war, and for many 



JOHN BRIGHT. 235 

of which, I am afraid, little or no reparation was 
offered." 

And then he begs of the people not to let the news- 
papers or public speeches lead them into a war frame of 
mind. Would that we had many a John Bright, with 
conciliatory spirit and Christian brotherliness, to keep 
peace and good-will among nations ! 

"What can be now more monstrous than that we, as 
we call ourselves to some extent, an educated, a moral, 
and a Christian nation, — at a moment when an accident 
of this kind occurs, before we have made a representa- 
tion to the American government, before we have heard 
a word from them in reply, — should be all up in arms, 
every sword leaping from its scabbard, and every man 
looking about for his pistols and his blunderbusses ? . . . 

" It has been said, ' How much better it would be ' — 
not for the United States, but — ' for us, that these States 
should be divided.' I recollect meeting a gentleman on 
Bond Street one day before the session was over. He 
was a very rich man, and one whose voice is very much 
heard in the House of Commons, . . . and he said to me, 
^ After all, this is a sad business, but still I think it is 
very much better that they should be split up. In 
twenty years,' or in fifty years, I forget which it was, 
^they will be so powerful that they will bully all 
Europe.' . . . 

" Til ere cannot be a meaner motive than this I am 
speaking of. ... I should say that, if a man had a 
great heart within him, he would rather look forward to 
the day when, from that point of land which is habitable 
nearest to the Pole, to the shores of the great Gulf, the 
whole of that vast continent might become one great 
confederation of States, — without a great army, and 



236 JOHN BRIGHT. 

without a great navy, — not mixing itself up with the 
entanglements of European politics, — without a custom- 
house inside, through the whole length and. breadth of its 
territory, — and with freedom everywhere, equality every- 
where, law everywhere, peace everywhere. Such a con- 
federation would afford at least some hope that man is 
not forsaken of Heaven, and that the future of our race 
might be better than the past. . . . 

" Now, whether the Union will be restored ©r not, or 
the South achieve an unhonored independence or not, I 
know not, and I predict not. But this I think I know, 
— that in a few years, a very few years, the twenty 
millions of freemen in the North will be thirty millions, 
or even fifty millions, — a population equal to or exceed- 
ing that of this kingdom. 

" When that time comes, I pray that it may not be 
said amongst them, that, in the darkest hour of their 
country's trials, England, the land of their fathers, 
looked on with icy coldness and saw unmoved the perils 
and calamities of their children. 

" As for me, I have but this to say : I am one in this 
audience, and but one in the citizenship of this country ; 
but if all other tongues are silent, mine shall speak for 
that policy which gives hope to the bondsmen of the 
South, and which tends to generous thoughts, and gener- 
ous words, and generous deeds, between the two great 
nations who speak the English language, and from their 
origin are alike entitled to the English name." 

Bright hated slavery, and did not forget to remind 
England, that she was in part responsible for the blot 
on the American nation. He reminded her people that 
Thomas Jefferson, two years before the Declaration of 
Independence, had said to the delegates from Congress 



JOHN BRIGHT. 237 

from his own slave State of Virginia : " The abolition of 
domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those 
colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their 
infant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of 
the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further 
importations from Africa. 

^' Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibi- 
tion, and by imposing duties which might amount to 
prohibition, have hitherto been defeated by his Majesty's 
negative, — thus preferring the immediate advantages 
of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the 
American States, and to the rights of human nature, 
deeply wounded by this infamous practice." 

"I blame men," said Mr. Bright, "who are eager to 
admit into the family of nations a State which offers 
itself to us, based upon a principle, I will undertake to 
say, more odious and more blasphemous than was ever 
heretofore dreamed of in Christian or Pagan, in civilized 
or in savage times. 

"The leader of this revolt proposes this monstrous 
thing — that over a territory forty times as large as 
England, the blight and curse of slavery shall be forever 
perpetuated. I cannot believe, for my part, that such a 
fate will befall that fair land, stricken though it now is 
with the ravages of war. I cannot believe that civiliza- 
tion, in its journey with the sun, will sink into endless 
night in order to gratify the ambition of the leaders of 
this revolt, who seek to — 

* Wade through slaughter to a throne, 
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' 

" They are not only slave owners, slave buyers and 
seUei'S^ but that which out of Pandemonium itself never 



238 JOEN BRIGHT. 

before was conceived of, — they are slave breeders for 
the slave-market ; and these men [Mr. Yancey and Mr. 
Mason, who had been sent from the South as envoys] 
have come to your country, and are to be met with at 
elegant tables in London, and are in fast friendship 
with some of your public men, and are constantly found 
in some of your newspaper offices ; and they are here to 
ask Englishmen — Englishmen with a history for free- 
dom — to join hands with their atrocious conspiracy." 

It ought never to be forgotten in America, that, when 
five hundred thousand working-people in the North of 
England were destitute from the privation of cotton, — 
many of them so near starvation that soup-kitchens 
had to be opened for them, and food provided by 
charity, — these working-people never lost their sym- 
pathy with the North. 

The trades-unions sent an address to Abraham Lincoln, 
saying: "We desire to assure you, and the people of 
the Northern and loyal States of America, that our 
earnest and heartfelt sympathies are with you in the 
arduous struggle you are maintaining in the cause of 
human freedom. We indignantly protest against the 
assertion that the people of England wish for the suc- 
cess of the Southern States in their diabolical attempt 
to establish a separate government on the basis of 
human slavery. . . . We would rather perish than 
band ourselves in unholy alliance with the South and 
slavery." 

When the merchants of New York and others sent 
their gifts to the suffering workmen of Lancashire, in 
the ship George Griswold, and generous contributions 
to the relief fund, Mr. Bright made an eloquent speech 
at the public meeting held February 3, 1863, to return 
grateful thanks. 



JOHN BRIGHT. 239 

" I regret," he said, " more than I have words to 
express, this painful fact, that, of all the countries in 
Europe, this country is the only one which has men 
in it who are willing to take active steps in favor of 
this intended slave-government. We supply the ships ; 
we supply the arms, the munitions of war ; we give aid 
and comfort to this foulest of all crimes. Englishmen 
only do it. . . . But the working-men of England, and 
I wilUsay it too for the great body of the middle classes 
of England, they have not been wrong upon this great 
question." 

A few days later. Bright said in a public address : 
"At this moment, such of you as read the city articles 
of the daily papers Avill see that a loan has been con- 
tracted for in the city, to the amount of three millions 
sterling, on behalf of the Southern Confederacy. . . . 
NoAv the one great object of that loan is this, to pay in 
this country for vessels which are being built, — Ala- 
bamas, — from which it is hoped that so much irritation 
will arise in the minds of the people of the Northern 
States, that England may be dragged into war, to take 
sides with the South and with slavery. . . . 

" There may be men outside, there are men sitting 
amongst your legislators, who will build and equip cor- 
sair ships, to prey upon the commerce of a friendly 
power, — who will disregard the laws and honor of their 
country, who will trample on the proclamation of their 
sovereign, and who, for the sake of the glittering profit 
which sometimes waits on crime, are content to cover 
themselves with everlasting infamy 

" I speak not to those men. ... I speak to you work- 
ing-men. . . . Do not, then, give the hand of fellowship 
to the worst foes of freedom that the world has ever 



240 JOHN BRIGHT. 

seen; and do not, I beseecli you, bring down a curse 
upon your cause, which no after-penitence can ever lift 
from it. . . .1 have faith in you. . . . 

" Impartial history will tell that, when your states- 
men were hostile or coldly neutral, when many of your 
rich men were corrupt, when your press — which ought 
to have instructed and defended — was mainly written 
to betray, the fate of a continent and of its vast popu- 
lation being in peril, you clung to freedom with an 
unfaltering trust that God in His infinite mercy will yet 
make it the heritage of all His children. . . . 

" In that land there are no six millions of grown 
men — I speak of the Free States — excluded from the 
Constitution of their country and its electoral fran- 
chise ; there you will find a free church, a free school, 
free lands, a free vote, and a free career for the child of 
the humblest-born in the land. My countrymen, who 
work for your living, remember this : there will be one 
wild shriek of freedom to startle all mankind, if that 
American Republic should be overthrown." 

When Mr. Roebuck, on June 30, 1863, introduced a 
motion into the House of Commons, in recognition of 
the Southern Confederacy, Bright's witty, sarcastic, and 
eloquent speech, which may be found in full in his 
" Speeches on the American Question," collected by 
Frank Moore, doubtless helped to make the member 
withdraw his motion. Mr. Bright said: ''When I can 
get down to my home from this House, I find half a 
dozen little children playing upon my hearth. How 
many members are there who cau say with me, that the 
most innocent, the most pure, the most holy joy which 
in their past years they have felt, or in their future 
years they hope for, has not arisen from contact and 
association with our precious children ? 



JOHN BBiGirr. 241 

" Well, then, if that be so ; if, when the hand of death 
takes one of these flowers from our dwelling, our heart 
is overwhelmed with sorrow and our household is cov- 
ered with gloom, — what would it be if our children 
were brought up to this infernal system ? one hundred 
and fifty thousand of them every year brought into the 
world in these Slave States, amongst these ' gentlemen,' 
amongst this ^ chivalry,' amongst these men that we can 
make our friends ? Do you forget the thousand-fold 
griefs and the countless agonies which belonged to the 
silent conflict of slavery before the war began ? . . . 

" The brother of my honorable friend, the member 
for South Durham, told me that in North Carolina, he 
himself saw a woman whose every child, ten in number, 
had been sold when they grew up to the age at which 
they would fetch a price to their master. . . . 

" I know what I hope for, and what I shall rejoice in, 
but I know nothing of future facts that will enable me 
to express a confident opinion. Whether it will give 
freedom to the race which white men have trampled in 
the dust, and whether the issue will purify a nation 
steeped in crimes committed against that race, is known 
only to the Supreme. In His hands are alike the breath 
of man and the life of States. I am willing to commit 
to Him the issue of this dreadful contest ; but I implore 
of Him, and I beseech this House, that my country may 
lift not hand or voice in aid of the most stupendous 
act of guilt that history has recorded in the annals of 
mankind." 

Later, he said, " When this mortal strife is over, when 
peace is restored, when slavery is destroyed, when the 
Union is cemented afresh, . . . then Europe and Eng- 
land may learn that an instructed democracy is the 



242 JOHN BRIGHT. 

surest foundation of government, and that education 
and freedom are the only sources of true greatness and 
true happiness among any people." 

When the dreadful war was over, Mr. Bright rejoieed, 
as did our whole nation, that the curse of slavery — 
four millions of human beings in bondage — had been 
washed away forever, even though by the blood of the 
noblest and the bravest of both North and South. 

Mr. Bright was soon to learn, from sad personal expe- 
rience, the sorrow " when the hand of death takes one 
of these flowers from our dwelling." In the autumn of 
1864 he and his family went to Llandudno for rest. 
One day as they were strolling through the pretty 
churchyard of St. Tudno, within hearing of the waves 
of the sea, their handsome boy of six, Leonard, said, 
admiring the beautiful scene, "Oh, mamma, I should 
wish when I am dead to be buried here." To their 
amazement and heart-breaking sorrow, the boy soon 
died, and was buried, according to his wish, in St. 
Tudno's Churchyard. 

" The funeral was simple in the extreme ; and as it 
slowly and mournfully ascended the mountain path, the 
only sound which broke the stillness was the fitful ca- 
dence of the restless billows, and the bleating of a soli- 
tary lamb which had wandered from the rest of the 
flock." 

A white marble headstone bears the simple record : 
"In loving remembrance of Leonard Bright, who died 
at Llandudno, November 8, 1864. Aged nearly six 
years. 'And there shall be one fold and one Shep- 
herd.' " 

Before leaving Eochdale, the child gave a little home- 
made whip to the gardener, to be kept till he returned. 



JOHN BRIGHT. 243 

The whip was hung up in the greenhouse, and is now 
tenderly cherished, for the fair-haired boy never came 
back for it. 

The next year, 1865, Bright sustained a great loss, and 
England as well, in the death of Cobden. When the 
famous orator attempted to speak on the death of his 
friend, in the House of Commons, his voice failed 
him twice from emotion. At last, he could speak but a 
few words concerning " the manliest and gentlest spirit," 
as he said, " that has ever quitted or tenanted a human 
form. . . . After twenty years of intimate and almost 
brotherly friendship with him, I little knew how much 
I loved him until I found that I had lost him." 

Speaking afterwards of Cobden's funeral, Bright said : 
" Standing by me, and leaning on the coffin, was his 
sorrowing daughter, one whose attachment to her father 
seems to have been a passion scarcely equalled among 
daughters. She said, 'My father used to like me very 
much to read to him the Sermon on the Mount.' His 
own life was to a large extent — I speak it with rever- 
ence and with hesitation — a sermon based upon that 
best, that greatest of all sermons. His life was a life of 
perpetual self-sacrifice." 

Cobden's life was not an easy one. "What life is ever 
easy that is devoted to highest good ? It was not 
strange, perhaps, that Mrs. Cobden should say to her 
husband in the last year of his life, as they rode up to 
London from their home in the country, " I sometimes 
think that after all the good work that you have done, 
and in spite of fame and great position, it would have 
been better for us both if, after you and I married, we 
had gone to settle in the backwoods of Canada." 

He had, says Morley, "the commander's gift of en- 



244 JOHN BRIGHT. 

couraging and stimulating others. He had enthusiasm, 
patience, and good humor, which is the most valuable of 
all qualities in a campaign. There was as little bitter- 
ness in his nature as in any human being that ever 
lived.'^ 

On November 3, 1868, Mr. Bright was presented with 
the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, and ten days 
later made an honorary member of its Chamber of Com- 
merce. In the following month, December, Gladstone, 
having become Prime Minister, offered Bright a position 
in the Cabinet, with the hearty concurrence of the 
Queen. Mr. Bright at first declined, but finally accepted 
the presidency of the Board of Trade ; though he told 
Gladstone on the following day that " he had not slept 
a wink after it." 

When he went to Windsor to take the oath of office, 
the Queen requested the clerk of the Privy Council to 
assure Mr. Bright that he was at liberty to omit the 
ceremony of kneeling, if m.ore agreeable to his feelings. 
He, therefore, took the oath standing. " I remember," 
says Gladstone, "being struck with the feeling that 
there was more loyalty, I will even say more reverence, 
expressed in Mr. Bright's face than would have served 
many a man to go through the kneeling and the kissing 
of hands." 

In the disestablishment of the Irish Church, Bright 
took a leading part. " Out of a population of six million 
persons in Ireland," said Mr. Bright, " four and a half 
millions belong to the Boman Catholic Church. Half 
a million belong to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
about half a million to the Presbyterian Church. . . . 
Now, if we belonged to these four and a half millions, 
and knew that this little church of half a million was 



JOHN BRIGHT. 245 

planted among us by those who had conquered our 
fathers, if we knew also that this little church was 
associated with everything that had been hostile to our 
national interests and prosperity, and if we knew further 
that it absorbed incomes amounting to not less than 
£700,000 or £800,000 sterling per year, these incomes 
being derived from national property amounting to prob- 
ably £13,000,000 or £14,000,000 sterling, —I say that, 
if we were of those four and a half millions, let me ask 
every man of you whether we should not feel that we 
had a just cause of complaint, and that there was a 
national grievance in our country that required to be 
speedily redressed ? . . . 

" We propose to put the Protestant Episcopalians of 
Ireland in exactly the same position ... in which all 
the Protestant churches, the Episcopalians included, are 
in Canada, in the Australian colonies, and in the United 
States." 

When the House of Lords delayed the passage of the 
Bill, Bright's outspoken words on the matter created 
a great sensation. " Instead of doing a little childish 
tinkering about life peerages," he said, " it would be 
well if the peers could bring themselves on a line with 
the opinions and necessities of our day. In harmony 
with the nation, they may go on for a long time ; but 
throwing themselves athwart its course, they may meet 
with accidents not pleasant for them to think of. But 
there are not a few good and wise men among the peers, 
and we hope their counsels may prevail." 

Bright believed that "the time is coming when a State 
Church will be unknown in England." He desired a 
Church separated from the State ; " a Church depending 
upon her own resources, upon the zeal of her people, 



246 JOHN BRIGHT. 

upon the truthfulness of her principles, and upon the 
blessings of her Spiritual Head." 

In 1870 Mr. Bright was obliged to resign his position 
in the Cabinet on account of ill-health. Her Majesty- 
invited him to rest at her summer home in Balmoral, 
but he was obliged to decline the offer. 

In August, 1873, after nearly three years, Mr. Bright, 
having recovered from his ill-health, accepted the position 
in the Cabinet of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
His friends, meantime, in the Staffordshire potteries 
had presented him with a valuable cabinet filled with 
the finest ware of Wedgwood, Minton, and Copeland. 
Several of the vases and other works of art had been 
made especially for this testimonial. 

In the spring of 1878 a great sorrow fell upon the 
Bright home. Mrs. Bright had been visiting the schools 
connected with the mills, had spoken to the scholars, 
and had asked them to sing for her one of her favorite 
hymns, " Let us gather up the sunbeams." On Sunday, 
May 12, she attended service in the Friends' Meeting 
House. The next morning, as her eldest daughter, Mrs. 
Clark, and her children, who had been visiting at " One 
Ash," were taking their departure, Mrs. Bright bade them 
an affectionate good-by, fell to the floor in a fit of apo- 
plexy, and died in a few minutes. 

A telegram was at once sent to Mr. Bright, who re- 
turned to his desolate home in the evening. He was 
greatly overcome ; at the unostentatious funeral, he 
leaned heavily on the shoulders of his youngest son, 
Philip, for support. After they had gone into the 
chapel for devotion, he noticed that an aged woman, 
humbly dressed, who had a seat opposite his, had no 
footstool. With the thought for others, which was a 



JOHN BRIGHT. 247 

part of his daily life, he stepped across and placed at 
her feet his own stool, which had been provided for his 
special accommodation. 

Letters of comfort came from Queen and workman 
alike, from great associations and humble family circles. 
Mr. Bright said, " I can say very little of what I have 
felt, and now feel, of the sympathy which has been 
expressed towards my family and myself. So far as 
sympathy can in any degree lessen the burden of afflic- 
tion, we have had that solace to its widest extent." 

He was not above sentiment. When some of Queen 
Victoria's subjects lamented that she sorrowed so long 
for her dead husband, and did not live more among her 
people, he said, " I venture to say that a woman, be 
she the queen of a great realm, or the wife of one of 
your laboring men, who can keep alive in her heart a 
great sorrow for the lost object of her life and affection, 
is not at all likely to be wanting in a great and generous 
sympathy with you." 

The next year, 1879, Mr. Bright spoke at a great Lib- 
eral meeting in the Pomona Gardens, Manchester, where 
over one hundred thousand persons were present. He 
opposed vigorously the Zulu and Afghan wars under 
Beaconsfield. He worked earnestly for Gladstone's Irish 
Land Bill. He did not favor Home Eule, believing that 
it would tend to a separation of Ireland from England. 
As he voted for the Coercion Bill in 1881, in consequence 
of the great increase of crimes in Ireland, he was blamed 
by many as they recalled his words, "Force is not a 
remedy." But he had added in that speech, "There are 
times when it may be necessary, and when its emplo)''- 
ment may be absolutely unavoidable," and he believed 
that time had come ; though he said, " I should rather 



248 JOHN BRIGHT. 

regard and discuss measures of relief as measures of 
remedy, than measures of force, whose influence is only 
temporary, and in the long-run, I believe, is disastrous." 

Mr. Bright was always an earnest friend to India. 
Again and again, before our Civil War, he urged that 
cotton be grown more extensively in India, as the 
slavery question must one day be settled, and cotton 
would fail then to come to their mills from America. 
He urged "that canals for navigation or irrigation be 
made, upon some grand scheme determined by eminent 
and competent engineers," that the produce of India be 
thus doubled, and the terrible famines prevented. In 
1837 over 800,000 people died of famine in India; in 
1860 as many more probably ; in 1868-69, 1,250,000 per' 
ished of hunger ; in some later years, nearly as many. 

" If famine comes from want of water," said Bright in 
the House, " clearly, to get rid of famine, you must have 
water. You cannot have water except by works of irri- 
gation. You have the rains from heaven ; you have 
great rivers ; and you have a great government, which 
has conquered the country, and which, having conquered 
it, at least ought to exercise all the powers of its intel- 
lect for the purpose of saving its people from this suf- 
fering and this ruin ; and ought to save this Parliament 
and this country from the degradation and humiliation 
of allowing it to be known throughout the world that 
millions of the subjects of the Crown in India, in the 
course of ten years, perish by famine, which great engi- 
neers and men of character and experience say positively 
might have been prevented." 

Mr. George W. Smalley, in his "London Letters," gives 
the following incident : " There was a dinner during 
which India was discussed. A very eminent man of sci- 



JOHN BRIGHT. 249 

ence expressed some strong opinions in favor of holding 
India by the sword, without much regard to the rights 
of the natives. Mr. Bright's opinions are well known. 
He turned on the eminent man of science, who was also 
a man of high spirit, and told him in a few sentences 
what he thought ; made him and the company see that 
his opinions, whatever their merits, were not according 
to knowledge. It was done with energy, unsparingly, 
but with unruffled sweetness of tone and manner. 

"^I never,' said this eminent man of science, contem- 
platively, as he walked up-stairs, ^I never before real- 
ized how much pleasure a man may have in being told 
he is a fool.' Mr. Bright, of course, had used no such 
word, but he had, perhaps, conveyed the im'pression." 

November 16, 1881, when Mr. Bright was seventy 
years old, his birthday was celebrated with torchlight 
processions and bonfires, and many addresses were pre- 
sented to him. As he drove through the streets he was 
escorted by six bands of music and a torchlight proces- 
sion of fourteen hundred of his townsmen. 

He had always been deeply interested in the subject 
of education. It was therefore fitting that, November 
15, 1880, he should be elected Lord Rector of Glasgow 
University, to succeed Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Buskin had 
been nominated in opposition, but received fewer votes 
by three hundred. Mr. Bright received also the freedom 
of the city of Glasgow. 

To the University students he said in an eloquent 
address: "Do we march, or do we not, to a brighter 
time ? For myself, as you know, it will not be possi- 
ble for me to see it ; but even whilst the sands of life 
are running it may be one's duty, if it be possible in the 
smallest degree, to promote it. . . . On you and such as 



250 JOHN BRIGHT. 

you depends greatly our future. What I want to ask 
you is, whether you will look back upon the past, and 
examine it carefully, — look round you in the present, 
and see what exists ; and endeavor, if it be possible, to 
give a better and a higher tone to our national policy for 
the future. ... 

" Shall we strive to build up the honor — the true 
honor and the true happiness of our people — on the 
firm basis of justice, morality, and peace ? I plead not 
for the great and for the rich. I plead for the millions 
who live in the homes of only one room. Can ye answer 
me in the words — words which I have quoted years ago 
on a somewhat like occasion, — words which fell from the 
crowned minstrel who left us the Psalms: 'The needy 
shall not always be forgotten ; the expectation of the 
poor shall not perish forever ' ? " 

Bright spoke at the opening of the new library in 
Birmingham. " You may have in a house costly pictures 
and costly ornaments," he said, " and a great variety of 
decoration ; yet, so far as my judgment goes, I would 
prefer to have one comfortable room, well stocked with 
books, to all you can give me in the way of decoration 
which the highest art can supply. The only subject of 
lamentation is — one feels that always, I think, in the 
presence of a library — that life is too short, and I am 
afraid I must say also that our industry is so far defi- 
cient that we seem to have no hope of a full enjoyment 
of the ample repast that is spread before us." 

Speaking of American writers, he said, " I would like 
to ask you if yOu have ever read what I consider the 
greatest of the poems of the United States — that is, 
Longfellow's ' Song of Hiawatha '? ... I do not hesi- 
tate to say, as far as my reading has led me to judge, 



JOHN BRIGHT. 251 

that that is a poem that deserves to live, and will 
live. . . . 

" My own impression is that there is no blessing that 
can be given to an artisan's family more than a love of 
books. The home influence of such a possession is one 
which will guard them from many temptations and from 
many evils." 

Mr. Bright said once before an institute : " Whenever 
I can possibly do so, I spend three or four hours of an 
evening reading some works of history or biograph}'-; 
and I never go to bed with more perfect feeling of 
enjoyment, or more strengthened, than when I have so 
spent an evening." 

Again he said to young men : " There are in this 
library scores, and probably hundreds, of admirable 
works of biography which you may read with the 
greatest benefit ; and I may say for myself that there is 
no description of reading from which I rise, as I can 
myself discover, more improved, than when I rise from 
the study of the biography of some great and good 
man." 

Mr. Bright was also especially fond of poetry, and 
studied carefully Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Shakspeare, 
Byron, Wordsworth, Southey, and Shelley. He kept 
note-books in which he copied choice or appropriate 
selections. 

It was a great pleasure to see and talk with Mr. 
Bright in his own extensive and attractive library. 
Beside his large bookcases, pictures of Lincoln, Wash- 
ington, and Sumner adorned the walls. Here was also 
a bust of Gladstone. 

A thing much prized was a gold-headed cane which 
once belonged to President Lincoln, given by the family 



252 JOHN BRIGHT. 

to the Rev. Dr. Smith, our consul at Dundee, and by him 
presented to Mr. Bright. " It is to be kept," said Dr. 
Smith in his will, " as an heirloom in the family of the 
said John Bright, as a token of the esteem which the 
late President felt for him because of his unwearied 
zeal and defence of the United States in suppressing the 
civil rebellion of the Southern States." This was given 
in accordance with the expressed wish of the President. 

Almost the first question Mr. Bright asked me, after 
his cordial grasp of the hand, was, " How is my friend 
Whittier ? " He had never seen our revered poet, but he 
loved the man who spent all his early life in protesting 
against slavery, and could repeat many of even his 
longer poems by heart. 

The handsome, open face of John Bright lighted up 
as he talked of America, a land he desired to visit, 
though he had been told he should " be obliged to shake 
hands with thirty million persons," — a statement quite 
near the truth, probably, as no Englishman could have 
received a greater ovation from our people. 

He talked earnestly about war, saying that none had 
been "just and necessary," save our own, for two hun- 
dred years ; believed that free trade had worked wonders 
for England, and hoped we should in time adopt similar 
measures ; was natural and unostentatious in manner, as 
becomes a really great man ; came out to the carriage 
door, while the harsh spring winds lifted his snowy hair 
as he talked, and said good-by with a cordial and manly 
grace that will make " One Ash " always remembered 
with affection. 

In 1882 Mr. Bright resigned from the Cabinet, because 
not in accord with his colleagues on the Egyptian War. 
Said Pasha had ruled Egypt nearly thirty years pre- 



JOHN BRIGHT. 253 

viously, in an enlightened spirit. Under him the Suez 
Canal was begun, and railways and telegraphs were 
extended all over his country. A large public debt was 
incurred consequently. At his death, Ismail Pasha 
succeeded him, and obtained from the Sultan the title 
of Khedive, the annual tribute to Turkey being raised 
from nearly four hundred thousand pounds to nearly 
seven hundred thousand pounds. 

Deeply in debt, the Khedive, in November, 1875, sold 
all his shares in the Suez Canal to England, for four 
million pounds. His own private loans were about 
eleven million pounds ; while the floating debt was about 
twenty-six million pounds. Finally the Khedive, hope- 
less as to payment, repudiated his debts. At once both 
England and France demanded that they should have a 
hand in the control of Egypt's finances, and arrange, if 
possible, for the payment of interest. 

As such an arrangement naturally was unpleasant to 
the Egyptians, a Nationalist party arose, headed by 
Arabi Bey, with the army behind it, which was opposed 
to European intervention. Ismail Pasha had already 
been deposed by the will of the European powers, and 
Tewfik, his son, was on the throne. 

The English and French consuls urged that Arabi 
and his allies should be compelled to leave the country. 
This Arabi refused to do, and Alexandria was rapidly 
fortified. A quarrel soon broke out between natives and 
Europeans. The English demanded that work on the 
fortifications should cease, and as this demand was not 
complied with, the English fleet commenced action, July 
10, 1882. The Cabinet of Great Britain then despatched 
an army " to secure British interests and restore order." 
Mr. Bright resigned his seat July 15, as he considered 



254 JOHN BRIGHT. 

this action '^ a violation of both international and moral 
law." " I asked my calm judgment," he said, " and my 
conscience, what was the path of right to take. They 
pointed it out to me with an unerring finger, and I am 
humbly endeavoring to follow it." 

Mr. Gladstone said to the House, on account of this 
separation : " It is to us, as it is to him, an occasion of 
the profoundest pain. But he carries with him the 
unbroken esteem, and, upon every other question, the 
unbroken confidence, of his colleagues, and their best 
and warmest wishes for his happiness ; and that it may 
follow him in the independent position to which he has 
found it necessary to retire." 

The forts at Alexandria were soon destroyed ; but 
before the British entered the city, much of it was 
burned, and more than two thousand Europeans were 
murdered. The Khedive was restored to power. The 
English troops, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, with eleven 
thousand bayonets, two thousand sabres, and sixty guns, 
marched against Arabi, at Tel-el-Kebir, September 13. 
The British charged with the bayonet and carried the 
first line of defences with a rush. The Egyptians 
fought desperately, but were overcome. Arabi was 
made a prisoner, and banished to Ceylon, giving his 
parole of honor to the British that he would not make 
any attempt to withdraw from his place of exile. 

Mr. Bright said of this war, "Perhaps the bond- 
holders, and those who have made money by it, and 
those who have got promotion and titles and pensions, 
will defend it; but thoughtful and Christian men will 
condemn it." 

In the early part of the next year, 1883, Mr. Bright 
received, through Secretary Evarts, an invitation from 



JOHN BRIGHT. 255 

the Union League Club of Kew York to visit the United 
States, and be the guest of the club. He appreciated the 
courtesy, and said, '' I can never forget your kindness 
and the honor you have conferred upon me;" but he 
added, " I never liked the sea, and my once strong appe- 
tite for travel has subsided, and I cannot but feel that 
the friendly welcome promised me on your side of the 
Atlantic would force me into a publicity from which I 
shrink." 

Four years previously he had received an urgent invi- 
tation from President Hayes to visit America. 

For a week, beginning June 11, 1883, the people of 
Birmingham celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
Mr. Bright's representation of their city in the House 
of Commons. They presented him with a gold medal, 
struck for the occasion, bearing the words: "Peace, 
Eetrenchment, and Eeform." Thousands came from 
neighboring cities to witness the procession, one mile 
and a half long, all places of business being closed, and 
houses and shops decorated, and to enjoy the concerts 
and other festivities, each evening. In Bingley Hall he 
spoke to twenty thousand people. Dr. R. W. Dale, on 
behalf of the Liberals of Birmingham, presented the 
great statesman with a portrait of himself, by Mr. Prank 
Holl, and a silver dessert service, costing six hundred 
guineas, one of Elkington's most beautiful works. One 
hundred and fifty addresses were also presented by 
delegations from Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Brad- 
ford, and other towns. Each night of the week he 
attended a great banquet. 

Mr. Bright was deeply moved by this expression of 
admiration and gratitude for his services. One of his 
last speeches to his constituents gave a glowing outlook 



256 JOHN BRIGHT. 

of the future, in accord with the optimism of his great 
heart. His closing sentences were : " If one may allow 
one's imagination a little play, I should say that we 
should have not a new heaven, but we should have a 
new earth. It would not be geographically greater than 
it is at present, but it would be greater in wealth, in 
comfort, and in human happiness. Forgive me if I 
dream, it may be so ; but I will believe in a better time ; 
if Christianity be not a fable, as I believe and you 
believe it is not, then that better time must come. 

* Earth's kindreds shall not always sleep, 
The nations shall not always weep.' 

" For me the final chapter is now writing. It may be 
already written ; but for you, this great constituency, you 
have a perpetual youth and a perpetual future. I pray 
Heaven that in the years to come, when my voice is 
hushed, you may be granted strength and moderation, 
and wisdom to influence the councils of your country by 
righteous means, for none other than righteous and 
noble ends." 

"Bright's speeches were never frequent," says Mr. 
Smalley, "and rarity always adds to the value of a 
thing. Neither in the House of Commons nor on the 
platform w^as he, at any time since the repeal of the 
Corn Laws, to be heard very often. It was an event 
when he spoke in the House, and when he delivered an 
address at Birmingham, there were pilgrimages from far 
and near. He disliked parade, ostentation, fuss, as much 
as any man could, but he never shrank from the 
affectionate greetings of his constituents. 

" The infrequency of his public appearances was due, 
however, to other causes than indolence or love of 



JOHN BRIGHT. 257 

seclusion. He understood that great efforts must be 
made at long intervals, and that one great speech is 
worth a score which just fall short of being great." 

In May, 1888, Mr. Bright was prostrated by a cold, 
and from that time till March, 1889, he was a sufferer 
most of the time. Royalty and artisan were alike 
anxious from day to day to know of his welfare. On 
Wednesday morning, March 27, his family were gathered 
around his death-bed. He seemed to know his children 
— asked for water, thanked them, became unconscious, 
and never awoke. 

On Saturday morning at eleven o'clock, at the funeral, 
tens of thousands crowded the streets of Eochdale. The 
oak coffin bore four wreaths of flowers : one of white 
and yellow, with the words, "A mark of respect from 
Victoria, R. I.," one from the Prince and Princess of 
Wales, a third from the working-people, and a fourth 
from Miss Cobden, " In loving memory of my father's 
best friend." 

One hundred of Mr. Bright's employees walked on 
either side of the coffin, a knot of white ribbon in each 
coat. After them came the long procession of societies 
from all parts of the kingdom. At twelve o'clock, in 
perfect silence, the coffin was lowered into the grave. 
The earth was not filled in ; and on the following day, 
Sunday, thousands came to look upon the casket which 
held one of England's greatest men. 

In London special services were held in Westminster 
Abbey, the Temple Church, and elsewhere. In the House 
of Lords, as well as the House of Commons, the mourning 
was sincere. Gladstone spoke eloquently of the dead. 

" Of mere success," he said, " he was indeed a con- 
spicuous example. In intellect, he might lay claim to a 



258 JOHN BRIGHT. 

most distinguished place ; but the character of the man 
lies deeper than his intellect, deeper than his eloquence, 
deeper than anything which can be described or placed 
upon the surface ; and the supreme eulogy I apprehend 
to be his due is this : that he lifted political life to a 
higher elevation and a loftier standard, and that he has 
thereby bequeathed to his country the character of a 
statesman who can be made the subject not only of 
admiration, and not only of gratitude, but even of what 
I do not exaggerate in calling, as it has been well called 
already by one of his admirers, the object of a 
reverential contemplation." 

Lord Salisbury said : " He was the greatest master of 
English oratory that this generation — I may say several 
generations back — have produced. I have met men 
who have heard Pitt and Fox, and in whose judgment 
their eloquence, at the best, was inferior to the finest 
efforts of John Bright." 

Mr. Justin McCarthy spoke for the Irish, and claimed 
for himself and his friends " the right to lay an Irish 
wreath on this great Englishman's grave." 

The Times expressed the general feeling of press and 
people : " It is an immense thing for a leader of vast 
masses of men to be absolutely pure, loyal, and disinter- 
ested ; and great has been the fortune of England, that 
in so critical a period of her history — the period of the 
enfranchisement of the working-classes — the acknowl- 
edged leader of those newly enfranchised men was one 
so pure, so loyal, so disinterested, as John Bright." 

In the death of John Bright, America lost one of her 
most valued friends and defenders ; in the life of John 
•Bright, her young men will have forever a noble and 
rare example. 



^/^ 



,,ji«i*>ii*- 





WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER, 



WILLIAM EDWARD FOKSTER. 



" TTTE can ill afford to lose so honest, so unselfish, and 
V V courageous a statesman as he was in these days, 
and his public loss is very great.'' 

Thus wrote Queen Victoria to the wife of this dis- 
tinguished statesman, just after his death. And her 
words were not unlike those which came from every 
class in England, and from America as well. 

William Edward Forster, born at Bradpole, Dorset- 
shire, July 11, 1818, was the only child of the eminent 
Quaker preachers, William Forster, and Anna Buxton 
Forster. 

The father was a shy, gentle, humane man, who, 
devoted to spreading the gospel, endured many hardships 
and life-long self-sacrifices to carry on his work. He 
first inspired Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, the noted mem- 
ber of Parliament, in the cause of abolition, and led 
Elizabeth Fr}^ to take up the work at Newgate. 

In October, 1816, the minister, somewhat sombre, and 
often depressed from the greatness of the work he saw 
before him, married Anna, the sister of Thomas Fowell 
Buxton, a young woman beautiful in face, of fine family 
and address, with great charm and vivacity of manner. 
Allied to the wealthy Gurneys and Buxtons, she accepted 
cheerfully the poverty of her husband, and settled in a 
modest thatched stone cottage at Bradpole. 

259 



260 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

Its plainness was relieved by a garden, half orchard 
and half flowers. "All our dear friends," William 
Forster wrote to Joseph John Gurney, " seem to fancy 
us very happy in our little cottage, and rich in the 
enjoyment of each other's company ; and truly they are 
not mistaken. Our comforts are almost without alloy." 

Into this home, where the parents were " rich in the 
enjoyment of each other's company," but poor in purse, 
the only child William Edward came to bring cheer and 
comfort, two years after the marriage. 

Soon after the child's birth, the father felt called to 
go to America on a mission to the scattered Friends. 
That he keenly felt the separation from his little family, 
is shown by his letters to his co-workers. " Many are my 
trials of faith and my discouragements," he wrote, "and 
deep and heavy the conflict of natural affection and 
feeling. I need not tell thee how hard it is to look 
towards so long and distant a separation from my 
beloved and most loving and helpful wife and our sweet 
little boy. ... I wish to serve the Lord with cheerful- 
ness and resignation : but, alas ! tne flesh is very weak : 
but may I never forget that, impossible as it seems to 
me, with God all things are possible." 

In April, 1820, WiJliam Forster embarked at Bristol 
for America. Just before he separated from his wife, 
some twenty friends knelt in the cabin of the vessel, and 
she " returned thanks for the prospect which was given 
her of William's safe voyage." 

She wrote him often, in her loneliness : " I have 
indeed had to drink a bitter cup. A very suffering path 
has this separation been to me, and must I not expect 
will often be. . . . Our darling boy is finely and truly 
lovely, so very affectionate in his manner. . . . He puts 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 261 

his hand out when I ask where dear papa is, and says 
' Gone/ and when I asked if he loved thee, has answered 
me ' Yes.' . . . 

" On Third Day morning, sweet Willy said, before it 
was quite light, ' What did thee cry for so last night ? 
Will thee cry any more ? Is thee crying now ? ' '' 

Mrs. Forster felt equally called to the work of the 
ministry. Once, when the child was with his nurse, an 
old gentleman asked, " Where is your papa, my dear ? " 

" Papa is preaching in America," was the reply. 

"And where is your mamma ? " 

"Mamma is preaching in Ireland," was the answer. 

Mr. Forster travelled through the Northern and South- 
ern States, and in Canada, in his labor of love. After 
five years of absence, he returned to his simple home, 
and his dear ones. 

When the son was ten, he began to receive lessons from 
Mr. Taylor, the curate of Bradpole. The boy was deli- 
cate in health, and could not give much time to books. 
He passionately loved nature, and used to write in his 
diaries concerning the homes and habits of birds, and the 
various kinds of flowers which he found. 

He read the newspapers carefully, as, indeed, he did 
through life. At thirteen he read the "History of 
Mary, Queen of Scots," Bourrienne's " Life of Napoleon," 
and the like ; and wrote out his views upon them. At 
this age he had decided to become a lawyer. He told his 
aunt. Miss Sarah Buxton, and her friend Anna Gurney, 
whose house was like a home to him : "My father has 
given me a choice of two professions, — medicine or law, 
— but I shall take to the law, because in that line I 
may get into Parliament." Evidently the child in the 
plain home was aspiring to something which seemed very 
far beyond his reach. 



262 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

Tliis home of the aunt became invaluable to the boy. 
Anna Gurney knew many languages ; Latin, Greek, 
Norse, and other Northern tongues. She was an omniv- 
orous reader, and was a constant stimulus to the lad 
in intellectual thinsrs. In the lives of most men who 
have come into prominence, will be found an Anna 
Gurney, — the name may have a thousand variations, — 
who has been one of the forces which pushed them on to 
success. 

A.t thirteen the boy was sent to a Friends' School at 
Eishponds House, Bristol ; Avhere, says Mr. T. Wemyss 
Keid, " instruction in every known branch of literature 
and the sciences " was given. The school hours were 
from 6.30 a. m. to 6 p. m ! During the first six months, 
the parents spent about seventy-five dollars for books 
alone, which their child was supposed to need. 

He wrote home that he was in the first class in Greek, 
and soon to be in German and in Latin. " I had been 
rather low yesterday morning," he wrote, ^' being afraid 
I should not have a letter ; but as soon as I had them, 
they set me all to rights, they were so ve7y kind. I like 
to have them on First Dsij, because then I can read them 
over and over again, and almost learn them by heart 
without any interruption. . . . 

" I am sure I do not know what I should be able to 
do without your letters ; I could keep every word of 
them, they are such a pleasure to me. I wish you 
would say how you are in every letter ; for if you 
don't say, I shall be always afraid there is something 
the matter." 

At fourteen William Avas removed to a school at Grove 
House, Tottenham. Here he gave close attention to his 
studies, rising at four o'clock in the morning to complete 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 263 

the work. He excelled especially in mathematics, think- 
ing it " the noblest of all human sciences." 

He wrote to his father : " I have drawn up a set of 
regulations for the use of my playtime, by which, either 
in my playtime, or by getting up in the morning, or by 
reading in bed, I obtain in every week, not including the 
evenings, five and a half hours mathematics, and eleven 
and a half hours reading ; and I have set myself in my 
leisure time in the evening, — two evenings for themes, 
two for mathematics, one for Latin verses, and one for 
Greek Testament and sundries." 

Knowing well the circumstances of his parents, he 
wrote them when he was sixteen : " How most truly 
kind it is of you to let me stop at school another half ! 
How few parents there are who would do so ! However, 
I think your kindness will, and, indeed, has had the effect 
of spurring me on, rather than making me idle." . 

Young Forster had reached his eighteenth year. And 
now he must decide the question which has puzzled so 
many thousands of young men : " What should be his 
life work ? " 

His father had finally become opposed to the law, 
showing his son the many years which would probably 
pass before he could attain even a slender support, say- 
ing nothing of a competency, or a position in the House 
of Commons. He wrote to his father after one of these 
discouraging epistles : " If it is quite certain that I could 
not get a name at the bar till forty, there is most cer- 
tainly an end of all thoughts about it — a most complete 
knock-down." 

William Forster had chosen poverty, and he had 
learned what all learn who have to bear its hardships ; 
that while it may bring blessings, it brings much sorrow. 



264 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

He shrank, with his whole nature, from this hard lot for 
his only child, and who can blame him ? 

Years of anxiety, and change, and poverty, were to 
be the lot of the young student. At first an attempt 
was made to obtain for William Edward a place in a 
solicitor's office, but no success resulted. Then there 
came a prospect of a clerkship in Gurney's bank, which 
prospect delighted the father ; but this came to naught. 
Then it became evident that the youth must try business. 
He and his father Avrote to various parts of the country, 
but there seemed no opening ; at least, none where Mr. 
Forster felt that his boy would be comparatively safe 
from evil influences. Finally, through Mr. Joseph Gur- 
ney, a position was found with a Mr. Robberds, a weaver 
of hand-loom camlets at Norwich. 

The youth, who had been writing at school on such 
matters as " The Advantages to Civilization from Educa- 
tion," and " The Causes of the Misery with which Ire- 
land has been and is now afflicted," began to learn the 
trade of weaving, from the very beginning. He had a 
hand-loom of his own, and, whether to his liking or not, 
he worked diligently and enthusiastically. 

He wrote to his mother : " Robberds kindly took me 
to a yarn factory, and showed me all about it ; because 
thou seest, my dear mother, I am to overlook the educa- 
cation of the dear child Camlet, from the back of a Nor- 
folk sheep till it gets to the back of myself, barring the 
tailoring ; for I mean to have a camlet coat with all due 
velocity. I am to warp some thrums myself, and intend 
to weave thee a party-colored cloak of scarlet, yellow, and 
blue. 

" I came back at five most ferociously hungry, seeing 
that I had eaten nothing whatever. Robberds told me 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 265 

that he never thought of luncheon. However, I gave 
him to understand that I intended to think of it for half 
or at least a quarter of an hour every day. I do hope 
that I feel grateful to Joseph Gurney and my other most 
kind friends ; and I am sure I need, for what a great 
comfort it is to be on the way to stand on one's 
own legs." 

Devotedly attached to his father and mother, William 
visited them often at Bradpole, now and then asking a 
friend to accompany him. He wrote his friend Barclay 
Fox: — 

" My parents are as poor as rats, which is a very great 
plague — but I hope to make some money before long — 
and consequently we live in quite a small way, for ex- 
ample, keeping neither carriage, nor gig, nor horses, 
only a small pony, on which my mother generally rides 
to meetings ; and our house is quite a cottage. Nothing 
is further from my wish than in any the slightest 
degree, to discourage thy coming. There is nothing I 
should enjoy so much, and both my father and mother 
will like it extremely. Nor do I think so lowly of my 
friend as to suppose that he would take such things into 
account in his friendship ; but still I thought it w^ould 
be best that thou shouldst have a clear idea of things, 
as T should be sorry to be so selfish as to take thee away 
from other visits which I fear would have more in them 
to give thee pleasure." 

The years with Mr. Robberds were of course unevent- 
ful years, at which the ambitious youth probably chafed. 
He wrote to his friend Barclay, on his nineteenth birth- 
day:— 

"Well, if the next three years have not more stir in 
them than all the other nineteen, it sha'n't be my fault. 



«^ 



266 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

By the by, I become a salaried clerk to-day, with sixty 
pounds salary the first year, and one hundred pounds 
the next. 

"At present T am writing for a prize of fifty pounds 
offered by the Aborigines Society. My great literary 
ambition is a liberal, literary, entertaining, philanthropic 
magazine : one which should be clieap enough to get a 
large circulation, if it deserved it ; one which should have 
a decided religious tendency, without being so regularly 
religious as to drive people away from it ; which would 
show that there can be innocent amusement, and which 
should not attempt to check, but ratlier to turn to good 
purposes, the radical, renovating spirit of the age. . . . 
Thou must come soon. . . . Oh, dear ! how I should like 
some fun. . . . Pickwick is my great comfort." 

The youth on sixty pounds a year did not attempt to 
launch a new magazine, or he might have learned a sad 
lesson in finance, as many another ambitious person has 
learned. 

Meantime the mother and father had given up their 
home at Bradpole, and moved to Norwich, that their son 
might be with them. As his health was not good, and 
he had begun to fear also that he might live in Nor- 
wich many years without great success, he temporarily 
gave up his position, and went to the North of England 
to visit friends. 

His parents, and himself as well, were still worried 
over the future. One hundred pounds a year would not 
make him and them comfortable. The old question of 
poverty was ever present. Perhaps it made them all 
the dearer to each other, for each seemed to have no 
wish or thought but for the other. 

While away on this visit to friends, a place was found 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 267 

for William in some woollen mills at Darlington. It was 
not easy work. He wrote to his father : — 

" I am thoroughly settled into wool-sorting, with my 
slip, paper cap, and shears. My hours as yet at the 
mill have been from six to six, with an hour for break- 
fast, and an hour and a half for dinner. ... I stand the 
whole time, which is tiring as yet, but I hope soon to 
get used to it. The employment is very dirty ; but of 
-course I do not mind that, nor the length of the hours. 
The only thing I do mind, and that I cannot conceal 
from thee, though of course I should not tell my friends 
here, is its tedious drudgery ; the little employment 
for one's thoughts, which makes me very glad to get 
over each hour of work. However, if it be drudgery 
that will tell, I hope I am man enough to bear it, and 
in time not to mind it." 

Hard at work from six to six, he must still use his 
mind in the evenings ; for, if now there seemed no hope 
that he would ever enter the House of Commons, he 
sometimes had, as he wrote Barclay Pox, " A violent 
desire to do good in my generation." 

He wrote to his parents to send him " Abbot's Trig- 
onometry, Hamilton's Conic Sections, Lacroix's Dif- 
ferential Calculus, and especially Taylor's Elements of 
Algebra." 

Even all this work was not enough. He must help 
in the great questions of the day. He could not but be 
interested in slavery, since his father and his uncle, 
Eowell Buxton, had devoted much of their lives to the 
subject. Mr. Buxton was now endeavoring to awake 
England to the development of Africa, and thus help to 
stop the infamous slave trade. He washed to prepare a 
statement to be submitted to Lord Melbourne, Prime 
Minister, and his Cabinet. 



268 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

Into this, the work of months, young Forster entered 
heartily. He compiled statistics, and argued from them 
of the new day for Africa, when commerce should be 
developed, and the slave traffic abolished. 

The uncle was delighted, and said, " Well done, Willy ! 
He has entirely beat us both." 

When it was decided to send out a company to Africa 
for the purpose of acquiring land and carrying on trade, 
young Forster was most anxious to go, but to this his 
parents could not consent. The Niger expedition proved 
a failure ; and had Forster gone he Avould have died 
probably like the rest, with his life work undone. 

Evidently good Mr. Forster was troubled lest his son 
be drawn away from business — one missionary in the 
family was all its pecuniary condition would bear — for 
the son wrote : ^^ I do most fully agree with thee, that I 
ought to make use of every advantage I can, and espe- 
cially to endeavor to gain a character for business habits." 

In 1839 young Forster left Darlington, and entered 
an office in London, that he might learn something of 
counting-house work a,nd business correspondence. These 
were all anxious months. He wrote Barclay just pre- 
vious to this : " I can't see an inch before me. I want 
to be at something in the way of getting a living, but 
don't know precisely what to be at. . . . 

" There is no getting rid of the too true fact that this 
life is a struggle ; at least, I find it so, and a pretty hard 
one, too." 

In London he provided his own breakfasts and teas, 
buying his dinners at chop-houses. Truly his life at 
twenty-one was neither very eventful nor cheering. 
He, however, managed, as we all might, to get happi- 
ness out of little thincrs. He wrote to his mother : " I 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 269 

have a most deligMful black kitten sitting in my easy- 
chair just now ; a most refined, graceful, intellectual, 
amusing puss. In fact, she is altogether the charm of 
the habitation, and when I march off, which I shall do 
ere long, I shall elope with her in my pocket." 

All along his father had hoped for an opening in one 
of the London banks, but this was at last given up. 
His uncle now offered him a position in his brewery, 
but he declined the offer, as he could not conscientiously 
adopt a business so fraught with harm to his fellow-men. 

In the summer of 1841, an opening came unexpectedly. 
Mr. Forster, in his mission journeys, had met Mr. James 
Fison, the head of a wool-stapling business, of Thetford, 
Norfolk. Both were Christian men, and therefore in 
sympathy, and both perplexed about the future of their 
sons. The result was that William Edward and Mr. 
T. S. Fison, the son of James Fison, became partners in 
wool-stapling, at Bradford. A year later, in 1842, when 
William was twenty-four, he became a partner of Mr. 
William Fison in the manufacture of woollen goods. 

Both young men began on borrowed capital, both were 
energetic and devoted to business, and both in time 
became wealthy. The long hard years of poverty were 
exchanged for comfort and culture. And the devoted 
parents shared in all this change of fortune. The part- 
nership continued until Mr. Forster's death, and the 
business is now carried on by their sons, Mr. F. W. 
Fison and Mr. E. P. Arnold-Forster. 

Now that Forster had found a way to earn his living, 
and provide also for those who were dear to him, he at 
once began to join in public work, both political and 
social. He lead Carlyle, and later became one of his 
intimate friends. He read the Life of Dr. Arnold, and 



270 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

said : " I think I never met with a book at once so 
pleasant and so profitable. His noble, brave, loving 
heart, so earnest, yet so humble, so zealous for truth, so 
charitable to error, his life of constant work, 'unhasting 
yet unresting ' (his very pleasure and recreation, labor) ; 
his intellect at once so deep and so comprehensive, the 
contemplation of this rare union of the eye to see, the 
hand to act, with the heart to feel, and above all the will 
to direct, is at once both humbling and inspiring. . . . 
I have been slow in getting through Dr. A., for I wished 
to feel every word as I went on." 

To Arnold might be applied the words of John Morley 
on Eichard Cobden : " When he read a book, he read it 
as all reading should be done, with a view to life and 
practice, and not in the way of refined self-indulgence." 
Forster met the gifted John Sterling, and through him 
that lovable character, the Rev. Frederick Denison 
Maurice. Thomas Cooper, the poet of the Chartists, 
although nearly twice the age of Forster, also became 
one of his friends. He used often to say to Cooper, " If 
I had to take a part in the administration of affairs in 
this country, I would strive to accomplish two great 
purposes, — to give relief, and lasting relief, to poor 
Ireland ; and to get the children of the working-classes 
out of the gutter by educating them." 

At his cheerful rooms, in the hamlet of Bolton, near 
Bradford, made attractive with many books, he often 
entertained the children of the Bolton infant school, or 
those in his employ. He soon came to be known as the 
friend of the working-men. He was called Long Forster, 
from his tall frame, and his walks for pleasure, which 
often covered thirty miles. 

At his first political speech at Bradford, when he 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEll. 271 

took the part of the Chartists, and declared himself in 
favor of universal suffrage, some of the working-men 
even feared that he was going too far. "He's a rare 
talker," said one man to another. " I always tho't he 
were unsensible." 

In 1845 the father went to America on his second 
religious mission. The son corresponded constantly with 
his lonely mother, who seemed his other self, and they 
frequently exchanged visits. 

In September, 1846, at his annual holiday, he deter- 
mined to visit Ireland, then suffering from a dreadful 
famine. He found the want and starvation beyond his 
worst expectations. He wrote to his father, who had 
by this time returned from America: "I will give an 
instance in my mountain-guide yesterday, whom I picked 
by chance out of a field, — a noble-looking fellow, with a 
fine forehead, aquiline nose, and stately gait, but Avith 
almost no clothes, bare-legged — his thighs staring 
through his tattered corduroys — no shirt. His hire 
was sixpence per day, with diet, paying at that rate in 
labor, five pounds per annum for his acre of potatoes, 
which have entirely failed. A wife and four small chil- 
dren ; the children earning nothing. He said, ' We were 
starving before ; we must die now.' " 

Forster records in his diary : " The town of Westport a 
collection of beggars : the inn beset by a crowd of gaunt 
creatures, beseeching Lynch, the head of the works, for 
tickets. ... A warm-hearted man, a Dr. Derkee, of 
Louisburg, called. The people dying, he says, by ten 
and twenty a day, carried off by diarrhoea, and dysentery, • 
for want of food. . . . Woman yesterday pulled into a 
barn in agony of death. Another corpse carried up the 
streets to bury, in a wheelbarrow, till D'Arcy gave money 



272 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

out of his own pocket for a coffin. ... A poor fellow 
who carried our bag three miles or more, Lady L. gave 
three quarts of meal to. He seized some of it raw, and 
said he had had nothing since breakfast yesterday- 
morning." 

Forster gave liberally coal, meal, and money, even more 
than he could afford. On his return, he wrote an account 
of his experiences for the Society of Friends, who already 
had sent his father to Ireland to dispense their charities. 

In this report he said : " The misery of Ireland must 
increase daily, so far as regards her own resources, for 
daily they become less. To England must she this year 
look to save the lives of her children ; nor will the need 
for English aid cease this year. It will be long before, 
even with her utmost efforts, she can recover from this 
blow, or will be able to support her own population. 
She must be a grievous burden on our resources in return 
for long centuries of neglect and oppression. 

'^No one of us can have a right to enjoy either riches 
or repose until, to the extent of his ability, he tries to 
wash himself of all share in the guilt of this fearful 
inequality, which will be a blot in the history of our 
country and make her a by-word among the nations." 

Forster also met the committee of the British Asso- 
ciation, composed of such men as Eothschild and other 
millionnaires, and laid before them the needs of Ireland. 

In the summer of 1847, having moved his home from 
Bolton to Eawdon, he received a three-weeks' visit from 
Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle. Lord Houghton, then Eichard 
Monckton Milnes, was also a friend, and came over to 
join the party. While Carlyle was ever, to Forster, "the 
greatest modifying force of this century," for Mrs. Car- 
lyle he had even greater admiration. He said, " She was 



WILLIAM EDWARD FOBSTER. 273 

one of those few women to whom a man could talk all 
day, or listen all day, with equal pleasure." 

Forster wrote to Barclay l^ox that Milnes ^' defended 
all manner of people and principles in order to provoke 
Carlyle to abuse them, in which laudable enterprise he 
must have succeeded to his heart's content, and for a time 
we had a most amusing evening, reminding me of a 
naughty boy, rubbing a fierce cat's tail backwards, and 
getting on between furious growls and fiery sparks, but 
managing to avoid the threatened scratches." 

Forster was then reading Louis Blanc's " Organisa- 
tion de Travail,''^ Carlyle's " Chartism, the Peril of the 
Nation," and Thornton's ^^ Over Population." He was 
also speaking to " six or eight thousand people from the 
top of a wagon," mostly Chartists, of whom he wrote to 
his mother : " Unless some political concessions be made 
to these masses, and unless all classes strive earnestly 
to keep them better fed, first or last, there will be a con- 
vulsion ; but I believe the best political method of pre- 
venting it is by the middle class sympathizing with the 
operatives, and giving themselves power to oppose their 
unjust claims by helping them in those which are reason- 
able." 

In the spring of 1848, becoming even more deeply 
interested in the future of England, Forster went to Paris 
to study the Revolution. Louis Philippe had abdicated, 
and Louis Napoleon was not to become President until 
the winter. He saw Lamartine, Louis Blanc, and Blanqui, 
and was " sorry enough to leave Paris," after his few 
weeks' visit. 

In the spring of 1849 Forster revisited Ireland, and 
found, as ever, most unfortunate conditions. "Thanks 
to the Poor Law, no famine ; but the cabins unroofed, 



274 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

the tenants in the work -house, or underground, or emi- 
grated ; the landlords, many of them, ran away or hiding 
in houses for fear of bailiffs." 

After this Forster went again to Paris, with his friend 
Mr. Thomas Cooper. On his return to Bradford, which 
was suffering from cholera, he visited the houses of the 
poor, — he never lacked courage in the most trying places 
of a trying life, — and provided doctors and nurses for 
the sick, and cofhns for the dead. 

He had delivered already three lectures before the 
Mechanics' Institute of Bradford, on "Pauperism and 
its Proposed Remedies." He favored lightening of taxes 
upon the laborer, assisted emigration, the discontinu- 
ance of game preserves and entail laws, state aid to 
education, and a much larger degree of state aid and 
supervision than had heretofore been recognized. He 
spoke without notes, and was so original and so in 
advance of the thought of the time, that he was invited 
to speak elsewhere, and soon became known on many 
platforms. 

E-ichard Cobden wrote Porster, years afterwards : " I 
am not an habitual reader of speeches. . . . You and 
Bright are exceptions to my rule. Your utterances 
have a distinct meaning. Gladstone's speeches have the 
effect on my mind of a beautiful strain of music. I can 
rarely remember any clear, unqualified expression of 
opinion, outside his political, economical, and financial 
statements. I remember, on the occasion when he left 
Sir "Robert Peel's government on account of the May- 
nooth grants, and when the House met in unusual num- 
bers to hear his explanation, I sat for an hour, listening 
with real pleasure to his beautiful, rhetorical involutions 
and evolutions, and at the close saying, ^What a mar- 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 275 

vellous talent it is ! Here have I been listening with 
pleasure for an hour to his explanation, and I know no 
more why he left the government than before he com- 
menced ! ' " 

Perhaps with reason, some of the men who had loaned 
money to Forster, feared that so much interest in succor 
and suffrage for the people, would not make his business 
a success ; but he steadily prospered, being able to carry 
forward several different lines of work at the same time. 

Forster had already made the acquaintance of Emerson, 
in whose writings he was deeply interested, and had 
received a visit from him. " Emerson decidedly im- 
proves upon acquaintance," he said ; " is really social, 
and both willing and able to talk on all subjects, and, 
what is far more fascinating, to listen." 

Emerson exemplified Disraeli's definition of conversa- 
tion in " Coningsby : " " It consists in the exercise of two 
fine qualities. You must originate, and you must sympa- 
thize ; you must possess at the same time the habit of 
communicating and the habit of listening. The union is 
rather rare, but irresistible." 

Evidently the wool-manufacturer, the friend of such 
men as Carlyle and Emerson, the lecturer on practical 
reforms, was coming into the prominence of which he had 
dreamed when, a boy of twelve, he wished to study law 
and enter the House of Commons. 

Mr. Forster was now thirty-two, a man of means, and 
about to take the most important step in life, either for 
good or evil. In the summer of 1850 he married Jane 
Arnold, the daughter of the famous Dr. Arnold of Eugby. 
To Forster this marriage to a woman of loveliness 
and culture, and into such a rare family, brought unmixed 
good. 



276 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

Having married the daughter of a clergyman of the 
Church of England, he was necessarily separated from 
the Friends, who at that time expelled members for 
mixed marriages. Years afterwards Forster said to a 
deputation of Quakers, " Your people turned me out of the 
Society for doing the best thing I ever did in my life." 

Eighteen months after Forster's marriage, he removed 
from Rawdon to Burley, Wharfedale, where he built a 
comfortable home, called Wharfeside, on the bank of the 
Wharfe River. He had established a worsted manufac- 
tory at Burley, and wished to be near his mill. 

The library, commanding a lovely view of the river 
and the hills of heather, was the most attractive room in 
the house to both Mr. and Mrs. Forster. Books were on 
every side. Here he wrote at one table, and his wife at 
the other. Here noted people came, drawn thither by 
the cultivation of the inmates. 

Seven years later, four orphan children came into the 
Forster home — they had none of their own — children 
of William Delafield Arnold, fourth son of Dr. Arnold, 
who, after being educated at Rugby and Oxford, and 
joining the Indian army, became Director of Public 
Instruction in the Punjab. 

Mrs. William Arnold died in India in the spring of 
1858, and her husband immediately started for England, 
with his four motherless little children. He died on 
the passage at Gibraltar, at the early age of thirty-one. 

Mr. Matthew Arnold, in "A Southern Night," thus 
beautifully refers to the death of these two : — 

" The murmur of this midland deep 
Is heard to-night around thy grave, 
There where Gibraltar's cannoned steep 
O'erfrowns the wave. 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 277 

Ah me! Gibraltar's strand is far, 

But farther yet across the brine 
Thy dear wife's ashes buried are, 

Remote from thine. 

For there where morning's sacred fount 

Its golden rain on earth confers, 
The snowy Himalayan Mount 

O'ershadows hers. 



I think of her whose gentle tongue 
All plaint in her own cause controlled; 

Of thee I think, my brother, young 
In heart, high-souled ; 

That comely face, that clustered brow. 
That cordial hand, that bearing free; 

I see them still, I see them now. 
Shall always see. 

Mild o'er her grave, ye mountains, shine! 

Gently by his, ye waters, glide! 
To that in you which is divine 
" They were allied." 

Mr. Forster was deeply moved by this death, as he and 
William Arnold had been close friends. " There was a 
great charm and great nobility in my brother Willy's 
character," says Mrs. Forster, " combined with remark- 
able energy and ardor, and something of youthful vehe- 
mence. He was a younger man than my husband by 
several years ; but their characters had much in common, 
and they were interested in each other from the first." 

" The precious children," wrote Forster to his wife, 
after hearing of her brother's death. " I do feel as much 
like a father as man can. May I be helped, so that if he 
can look down upon them, he may not feel that his trust 
in me has been misplaced." 



278 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

Of course the coming of four children to Wharfeside 
made a difference in the home. Years later his adopted 
daughter, then Mrs. Robert Vere O'Brien, wrote : " A bay 
window was thrown out here, a room was built on there, 
an additional gable introduced in another place, each 
new addition fitted into the original fabric by the ingen- 
ious and sympathetic architect who had built the house. 
. . . The bare field was speedily transformed into lawns, 
flower-beds, and shrubberies, each tree in which, we used 
to maintain, was known individually and personally to 
my father and mother, so deeply attached were they to 
these trees of their own planting. . . . 

"Prom first to last the real core and nucleus of Wharfe- 
side was the library. This room was the connecting 
link between my father's old surroundings and his new ; 
for its exact proportions and size, the low-raftered ceil- 
ing, the dark mahogany bookcases that lined the walls, 
were copied or had been transported bodily from his 
library at Rawdon, and the heavy red velvet curtains 
drawn every night across the wide window that filled up 
nearly the whole of one wall, were a purchase of his 
bachelor days of which he was not unreasonably proud,. 

"This library was the room of the house. From the 
first it was in the library that my mother's sofa, her 
writing-table, her flowers and books, were established; 
and this room was the scene of that active joint life, 
that perfect companionship in all their plans, occupa- 
tions, and interests, which began with those early years 
of quiet work at Wharfeside. 

" In later times the library was still the family-room, 
as might have been seen by the various tokens of femi- 
nine, not to say juvenile, occupations intruding amongst 
the pile of newspapers, the letters, blue-books, and 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 279 

despatch-boxes, which might well have claimed a monop- 
oly of right to the limited space available in the small 
library, now the workroom of a busy public man. . . . 

" Nor would even the dogs and the Persian cat ever 
consent to forego their right of free entry to this favor- 
ite room at all times and seasons, — a right which was 
always freely admitted by their master. Often have I 
seen him, when in the thick of preparing for some impor- 
tant speech, go suddenly to open the door in obedience 
to the summons of an impatient collie dog whining for 
admittance. Yarrow would then shuffle himself across 
the room to his accustomed corner, curl himself round, 
and only emerge when the time came for his master to 
break off a long morning's work to take a short stroll 
before post-time, and on these occasions Yarrow's 
company was always indispensable." 

As soon as the new mills at Burley were opened, a 
large room was set apart as a reading, concert, and class- 
roo4n for the operatives. It was opened two evenings in 
the week for men's classes, two evenings for girls' 
classes, and two evenings for music. A library was pro- 
vided, also cooking apparatus. A savings-bank was 
established for the work-people, and on any sums 
received, from sixpence up to twenty-five pounds, ten 
per cent interest was given up to five pounds, and five 
per cent afterwards. 

1^0 Avonder that Forster was called "the working-men's 
friend." He knew that the interest of an employer 
ought not to end when wages are paid. He felt a 
moral responsibility that his operatives should have the 
benefits of a library, and a place of recreation other than 
a saloon. Would that all employers in America felt 
tlius ! 



280 WILLIAM EDWAIiD FOBSTEB. 

He presided at co-operative meetings, and encouraged 
co-operative production. When asked, in connection 
with trade unions, "Do you think that a strike has ever 
either raised wages, or prevented their being lowered ? " 
he replied, "No; hut the fear of a strike liasP 

Mr. Porster's life had become more full of work than 
ever. He was made chairman of the Board of Guardians 
at Bradford. He wrote letters for the newspapers on 
economic questions, and also for the Westminster and 
Edinburgh K-eviews, on such topics as " Strikes and 
Lockouts," " The Foreign Policy of the United States," 
" Autocracy of the Tsars," " Slavery," " The Laissez- 
faire Doctrine," which he heartily opposed, and other 
subjects. 

In October, 1853, Forster's father had gone on another 
mission to the United States. He travelled in Wiscon- 
sin, Louisiana, Georgia, and Tennessee, urging, wherever 
it was possible, through the governors and other leading 
men, if they could not at once abolish slavery, to use their 
efforts to make the system as free from evil as possible. 
His kindness and earnestness won the respect of those, 
even, who could not see with his eyes, or feel with his 
Christian heart. 

Early in 1854 he was seized with a serious illness at 
a small wayside house not far from Knoxville, Tenn., 
and there he died January 27, and was buried among the 
Friends at Friendsville. Of the ten brothers and 
sisters in the Forster family, William was the only one 
who had a child. William Edward used to say somewhat 
sadly, " I am the last of my name." 

The shock to Mrs. Forster in the death, of her hus- 
band, so far away, was great. She survived him only a 
year, and then died, as she could have wished, peacefully 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 281 

in the arms of her idolized son. She did not live to see 
him enter Parliament, but she .lived to see him honored 
and successful. 

About this time Forster lost also the friend of his 
youth, Barclay Fox. "The dearest, the truest, the 
most loving of f riends,'' he said ; " such a friend as no 
man could expect twice in his life." 

In the general election of 1857 Forster was men- 
tioned by several constituencies for Parliament. At New- 
castle, his views on education probably did not please 
the Dissenters. He was proposed for Bradford, but, 
finding that he would imperil the chances of a friend, he 
retired from the contest. A second time he was pro- 
posed, and failed of success. He stood for Leeds, and 
w^as defeated. 

Of course a man of Forster's ambition was disap- 
pointed. He wrote to his wife on his birthday in 1856, 
— he was then thirty-eight years old : — " This birth- 
day_makes me think much ; there have been so many of 
them before, and I have done so little. The world is so 
little, if at all, better for my tarriance in it. Would 
that the future may be different from the past. It ought 
to be, seeing what a helper I have in thee. ... At pres- 
ent I seem to myself very much to fritter away both 
time and brain, even w^hen I do not w^aste them. . . . 
Well, I wonder what the near future has in store for us. 
It is hard to think, but it is time I was doing more." 

Finally, in February, 1861, Mr. Forster was elected to 
the House of Commons for Bradford. Could his mother 
but have lived six years longer, to see this day ! He 
had longed for this all his life, and the honor had come 
at forty-three, on the retirement of Sir Titus Salt on 
account of ill health. 



282 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

The Civil War in America had begun. The fact that 
Porster's father had died and was buried on our soil, 
deepened an interest which he had always felt in our 
country. He had written to an American friend, Mr. 
Ellis Yarnall, in 1856 : " This Sumner outrage and the 
Kansas atrocities have actually made an anti-slavery 
President a possibility, which neither you nor I could a 
year ago have imagined. . . . 

" The Kansas slave quarrel is the first growl of thunder, 
but the storm has not come yet. Compromise — with 
the expectation of which all respectable, elegant, diplo- 
matic persons are pooh-poohing the whole thing, 'Oh, of 
course it will be compromised ! ' — is, in my eye, utterly 
unlikely, so far as facts look just now. What is more, 
perhaps, God does not intend it to be compromised." 

Mr. Forster's first speech in the House, brief, and to 
the point, bore upon the possible recognition of the 
Southern Confederacy by English officials in America. 
Three months later, he wrote to Mr. Yarnall : " A Mr. 
Gregory, M.P. for Gal way, who lately travelled in 
the South, and who has returned well humbugged by the 
Southerners, insists upon proposing in the House, the 
absurd but mischievous notion that we should promptly 
recognize Jefferson Davis's Confederacy. I have met 
his notice of motion with corresponding counter-notice, 
and expected the debate to come off a week or two ago ; 
but at the pressing solicitation of the Government he 
put it off." 

When Eorster opposed the motion of Gregory, he was 
called to order from the Chair on account of his eager- 
ness and earnestness of manner. 

He naturally became the warm friend of our minis- 
ter, Mr. Charles Francis Adams. Forster lectured 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 283 

before the Bradford Mechanics' Institute on the Civil 
War in America, and, of course, took the side of the 
North. 

"He thought," says the report of the lecture, "that, 
in place of treating the struggle with a cold cynical 
indifference, the sympathies of Europe ought to go 
wholly with the North. We ought to make allowance 
for them in a time of so much calamity. We ought to 
wish them success, as we wished success to freedom." 

There were comparatively few prominent Englishmen 
to plead our cause, except the never-to-be-forgotten John 
Bright, and William Edward Forster. 

While Forster and the American minister and his wife 
were the guests of Lord Houghton, a telegram came, 
announcing the seizure of the Confederate envoys, Mason 
and Slidell, on board an English vessel. At once Eng- 
land, with her strong Southern sympathy, was greatly 
agitated. 

Mr. Forster took his first opportunity to address the 
Bradford electors on the subject, and then hastened to 
London. He wrote his wife : — 

" I have been busy talking all day, and trust I have 
thrown some oil on the troubled waters, but struggling 
for peace is like the struggles of a drowning man. . . . 
On the whole, though both sides expect war, I am hope- 
ful. I trust I have done something to combat the fore- 
gone conclusion that Seward wishes war." 

He urged in his public speeches, that if Mr. Lincoln's 
Government refused to liberate Mason and Slidell, the 
English should propose arbitration before engaging in 
war. The Times criticised him severely for what it re- 
garded as an absurd proposition. 

Mr. Forster continued to argue for the North in the 



284 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

House of Commons. At one time there was an attempt 
to recognize the Confederacy ; then a refusal to recognize 
the blockade proclaimed by the North, on the Southern 
seaboard ; then a suggestion of mediation, which, of 
course, the North would resent. 

Fors-ter early foretold the danger of allowing Con- 
federate cruisers to be built, and the results which would 
surely follow. Cobden, a friend to the North, wrote 
Forster concerning the Alabama and other vessels : " The 
course Palmerston has taken will involve England in 
a war or a great humiliation. Every word of his in- 
sulting taunts and puerile recriminations in the above 
matter will be burnt as with hot iron into the memories 
of the Americans, who have a special dislike for the 
man." 

The history of these cruisers may be given in the lan- 
guage of one of Great Britain's able authors, Justin 
McCarthy. " The first privateer which became really 
formidable to the shipping of the North was a vessel 
called in her earlier history the Orbeto, but afterwards 
better known as the Florida. Within three months, 
she had captured fifteen vessels. Thirteen of these she 
burnt, and the other two were converted into cruisers by 
the Confederate Government 

" Only seven Confederate privateers were really formi- 
dable to the United States, and of these five were built 
in British dockyards. We are not including in the list 
any of the actual war-vessels — the rams and iron-clads — 
that British energy was preparing for the Confederate 
Government. We are now speaking merely of the 
privateers. 

" Of these privateers, the most famous by far was the 
Alabama. . . . The Alabama was built expressly for 



WILLIAM EDWARB FORSTER. 285 

the Confederate service, in one of the dockyards of the 
Mersey. She was built by the House of Laird, a firm of 
the greatest reputation in the ship-building trade, and 
whose former head was the representative of Birkenhead 
in the House of Commons. While in process of con- 
struction she was called the ' 290 ; ' and it was not until 
she had put to sea, and hoisted the Confederate flag, and 
Captain Semmes, formerly commander of the Sumter, 
had appeared on her deck in full Confederate uniform, 
that she took the name of the Alabama. 

"During her career the Alabama captured nearly 
seventy Northern vessels. Her plan was always the 
same. She hoisted the British flag, and thus decoyed 
her intended victims within her reach; then she dis- 
played the Confederate colors, and captured the prize. 
Unless when there was some particular motive for mak- 
ing use of the captured vessels, they were burnt. Some 
American captain saw far off in the night, the flames of 
aH3urning vessel reddening the sea. He steered to her 
aid ; and when he came near enough, the Alabama, 
which was yet in the same waters, and had watched his 
coming, fired her shot across his bows, hung out her flag, 
and made him her prisoner. . . . 

"But the Alabama did not do much fighting 5 she 
preyed on merchant vessels that could not fight. She 
attacked where instant surrender must be the reply to 
her summons. Only twice, so far as we know, did she 
engage in a fight. The first time was with the Hatteras, 
a small blockading ship, whose broadside was so unequal 
to that of the Alabama, that she was sunk in a quarter 
of an hour. 

" The second time was with the United States ship-of- 
war, Kearsarge, whose size and armament were about 



286 WILLIAM EDWARD FOBSTEB. 

equal to her own. The fight took place off the French 
shore, near Cherbourg, and the career of the Alabama 
was finished in an hour. The Confederate rover was 
utterly shattered, and went down. Captain Semmes 
was saved by an English steam-yacht, and brought to 
England to be made a hero for a while and then for- 
gotten. The cruise of the Alabama had lasted nearly 
two years. During this time she had contrived to drive 
American commerce from the seas." 

The United States complained, says McCarthy, " that 
the Alabama was practically an English vessel. She 
was built by English builders, in an English dockyard ; 
she was manned, for the most part, by an English crew ; 
her guns were English ; her gunners were English ; many 
of the latter belonged to the Eoyal Naval Eeserve, and 
were actually receiving pay from the English Govern- 
ment ; she sailed under the English flag, was welcomed 
in English harbors, and never was in, or even saw, a 
Confederate port. As Mr. Forster put* it very clearly 
and tersely, she was built by British ship-builders, and 
manned by a British crew ; she drew prizes to destruc- 
tion under a British flag, and was paid for by money 
borrowed from British capitalists.'' 

In consequence of these things, which, Cobden wrote 
Forster, " would be burnt as with hot iron into the mem- 
ories of the Americans," the two countries seemed for 
years on the verge of war. 

In 1869 Mr. Eeverdy Johnson, Minister to England, 
attempted to negotiate a treaty with England on the 
Alabama matters. The treaty offered was violently op- 
posed by the American Senate, Charles Sumner making 
a very able and severe attack upon it. His speech 
aroused strong feeling on both sides of the ocean. Mr. 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 287 

Forster responded to Sumner's speech, and sent the 
response to him, as they had been friends years before. 

Sumner wrote back : " If other English utterances were 
in the same tone, the differences between the two coun- 
tries would be much nearer a settlement than I fear they 
are. ... I have always had a deep sense of our wrongs 
from England, — to my mind, the most terrible ever 
offered by one friendly power to another. . . . Such was 
my love of peace — especially with England — that, when 
our troubles were over, I said nothing, hoping for a set- 
tlement. Never in the Senate, or elsewhere, did I utter 
a word. At last, the treaty was negotiated. As I think 
of it now, there was madness in that negotiation. . . . 
When it was determined to reject the treaty, it became 
my duty to assign the reasons." 

In 1871 Lord Eipon and Sir Stafford Northcote were 
sent to Washington for the purpose of concluding a fresh 
treaty. It was finally agreed to refer the matter in 
dispute to a High Court of International Arbitrators. 

The following year, 1872, by the Geneva Tribunal, 
England agreed to pay to America about three and a 
quarter millions sterling, as damages on account of the 
Alabama and other vessels employed by the Confederate 
States. Thus, fortunately, a dreadful war was avoided. 

When Palmerston died in 1865, and Lord Eussell be- 
came Premier, Forster accepted a place in the Ministry 
as Under Colonial Secretary. After a few months Lord 
Derby came into power, and Forster was again free to 
work for the great Reform Bill of 1867, the extension 
of the suffrage. Like Bright, he spoke at immense 
023en-air meetings, and in the toAvn halls. 

" He held up," says Mr. Beid, " before those Avhom 
he addressed, the American Constitution, with its free- 



288 WILLIAM EDWARD FOllSTEB. 

dom and its broad foundation, as an example of wliat 
might be accomplished if the leaders of the nation were 
willing to give the fullest possible extension of its lib- 
erties ; ' and yet further/ he added, ^ it is in our power 
to outstrip America in the race. . . . Whatever may be 
our advantages, whatever may be the disadvantages of 
America, America will beat us in the race for freedom, 
if, for much longer, millions of Englishmen are forced 
to feel themselves deprived of their citizenship.' " 

Forster favored household suffrage, pure and simple, 
and this was finally won from the Tory Government 
under Disraeli. 

During the autumn of 1867, Mr. Forster passed his 
usual holiday in a visit down the Danube to Constanti- 
nople and Asia Minor. He did not forget to write a 
letter to his darling Flo and Francis, " to race with one 
to mother. Yours will go up the Adriatic to Trieste, 
and then over the Alps. Mother's will go across the 
Mediterranean to Marseilles." 

Mr. Forster was nearing the time when he should 
obtain for England that for which his name will be for- 
ever remembered and honored, — National Elementary 
Education, through the Education Act of 1870. 

He had been deeply interested in the subject for 
years. As he believed that suffrage should be universal, 
so he believed and knew that those who voted ought to be 
able through education to vote intelligently. Like Lord 
Shaftesbury, he had investigated the ignorance among 
factory children. Like Henry Fawcett, he knew the 
deplorable ignorance among the children of the agri- 
cultural population, and among the working-classes 
generally. Fawcett tells of a village where not a single 
youth could be found who could read a newspaper well 
enough to enjoy it. 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 289 

England was far behind Germany and America in her 
education for the people. True, her colleges like Oxford 
and Cambridge, and her great schools like Eton and 
Rugby, were an honor to her ; but these were not for the 
poor. 

" Up to 1839," says Matthew Arnold, " a large part of 
the population owed to the Sunday-schools not only 
their religious instruction, but their power, whatever it 
was, to write and read." (Robert Raikes had established 
the first Sunday-school in 1782.) " The promoters of the 
Sunday-school, having seized the fruitful idea, that the 
school is an inseparable element of the organization of a 
Christian congregation, were naturally led to give more 
extension to this idea, and to institute the day-school. 

" In the early years of the present century, the Na- 
tional Society and the British and Foreign School 
Society were founded, in order by association to ob- 
tain the means of better reaching the end in view. The^ 
National Society was to promote schools in connection 
with the Church of England, and in which the cate- 
chism and doctrines of that Church were taught ; the 
British and Foreign School Society was to offer to all 
Protestant congregations a common school, where the 
Bible was read but no catechism admitted." 

Of course some of these schools were excellent, but 
voluntary effort could not, or did not, supply the needs 
of the people. The children of the poor went early into 
the shop or the held, because the pittance which they 
earned was useful to the family. 

A Statistical Report on Education, in 1834, said, 
"One-half of the schools are so-called 'dame-schools,' 
the greater part kept by females, but some by old men, 
whose only qualification for this employment seems to 



290 WILLIAM EBWAEB FORSTEB. 

be their unfitness for every other. These schools are 
generally found in very dirty, unwholesome rooms, fre- 
quently in close, damp cellars, or old dilapidated gar- 
rets. In by far the greater number there are only two 
or three books amongst the whole number of scholars. 
The terms vary from twopence to sevenpence per week, 
averaging fourpence." 

The prison reports of 1838 showed that only nine out 
of one hundred convicts could read and write. 

Commissions of Inquiry were appointed by the House 
from time to time, to report upon the condition of edu- 
cation, and the needs. One of these began its sittings 
in 1858. " The accounts which this Commission re- 
ceived of private schools," says Henry Craik, LL.D., in 
his " State and Education," " are not without something 
of dramatic pathos, pitiful as they are. In one we read : 
* It is impossible to describe the poverty and decay which 
everything indicated. . . . The chief text-book seemed 
to be a kitten, to which all the children were very atten- 
tive.' In another the teacher, ^ a young man, very pale and 
sickly in appearance,' worked as a carpenter during the 
school hours ; 'he expressed a strong wish to have an arith- 
metic-book and a grammar for his own improvement.' 

" In another, a widow seventy years of age, eked out 
by her school the pittance granted by the Union. Her 
total income was 3s. 9d. a week. ' She complained of 
inability to buy meat, and without meat her strength 
fails.' No wonder that ' she is very weary of life, and 
hopes that her time on earth will not be long.' 

" The reports of the Assistant Commissioners all tell 
the same story. The teachers were untrained, unedu- 
cated, recruited only from the ranks of those who had 
failed in other paths of life. Discharged servants, out- 



WILLIAM EDWAIiD FOKSTER. 291 

door paupers, cripples, and consumptive patients, those 
weak with the decrepitude of age, — to these and such 
as these, dragging on a miserable and hopeless exist- 
ence of the hardest drudgery, the education of nearly 
a third of the children of the country was intrusted. 
In the face of such a revelation there could scarcely be 
two opinions as to the urgent need of action." 

Dr. Craik gives the following, among several answers' 
made by children in an inspected school, in 1855, to the 
question, " What is thy duty towards God ? " to show 
how poor and superficial the education was, the child 
getting the sound without the meaning : 

" My duty toads God is to bleed in Him to fering 
and to loaf withold your arts, withold my mine, with- 
old my sold, and with my sernth, to whirchp and give 
thanks, to put my old trash in Him, to call upon Him, 
to onner His old name and His world, and to save Him 
truly all the days of my life's end." 

In the year 1864 Mr. Forster was appointed a 
member of the Schools Inquiry Commission, for ascer- 
taining the condition of middle-class education, the 
endowed or grammar schools not being under Govern- 
ment inspection. For three years Forster gave himself 
enthusiastically to this work. 

When Gladstone became Prime Minister, after the de- 
feat of Mr. Disraeli in 1868, Forster was made a mem- 
ber of the Privy Council, and Minister of Education, 
and in 1870 a member of the Cabinet. 

He realized better than most of his associates the 
great need of the work he had in hand. 

Francis Peek says in the '-Contemporary Eeview " for 
August, 1879, showing the condition of schools in 1870 : 
"Voluntary effort had provided 11,000 day and 2,000 



292 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

night schools. The number of children upon the regis- 
ters was 1,450,000, with an average attendance of about 
1,000,000 ; so that, even in these schools, the education 
could be but very imperfect, owing to the irregularity 
of the attendance. Thus only two-fifths of the children 
between the ages of six and ten, and only one-third of 
those between ten and twelve, were receiving even this 
insufficient amount of education, and although many 
others may have been receiving some sort of instruction 
from other sources, yet as the educational standard, 
even in the inspected schools, was so very low, it may 
be conceded that in those uninspected it was almost 
worthless. . . . 

"Regarding the quality of the instruction given in 
the inspected schools, one of the Government Inspectors, 
referring to the sixth standard, which required that the 
pupil should be able to read an ordinary newspaper 
with fluency, write the same from dictation, and do 
sums in bills-of-parcels, stated that in Birmingham and 
Leeds, with a population of 600,000, only 530 pupils 
succeeded in passing it." 

Forster was deeply moved by this condition of things. 
" He saw at Bradford, at Leeds, and in London," says 
Mr. E,eid, " hosts of little children whom he knew to be 
growing up in a real and terrible heathendom. He 
would sometimes stop these children in the street, ques- 
tion them closely as to how they lived, what they knew, 
and to what they were looking in future life ; and he 
would turn away from them with wet eyes, and a 
heart that was wrung with pity for a lot so hopeless. 

" Let each of us," he said, in the peroration of his 
speech, when introducing his bill, " think of our own 
homes, of the villages in which we have to live, of the 



WILLIAM EDWAED FORSTER. 293 

towns in which it is our lot to be busy ; and do we not 
know child after child — boys or girls — growing up to 
probable crime, to still more probable misery, because 
badly taught or utterly untaught ? Dare we, then, 
take on ourselves the responsibility of allowing this 
ignorance and this weakness to continue one year longer 
than we can help ? " 

The Education Bill of 1870, after great care in its 
preparation, was read for the first time in the House of 
Commons, February 17. Mr. Forster began his speech 
at 5.45, and spoke for one hour and forty minutes, 
holding close attention. 

By this bill the country was to be divided into school 
districts. Every district was to be examined to see what 
was needed beyond what the voluntary schools were 
already doing. School boards were to be elected by 
those who paid rates in the district ; and these boards 
were to supply all deficiencies of education. They had 
power to build schoolhouses, borrowing the money from 
the Government ; to levy a rate over the whole district 
to procure funds, and to charge fees to parents. Both 
board and voluntary schools were to obtain grants from 
the Government according to the excellence of instruc- 
tion, tested by results in the pupils. Each board was to 
decide for itself whether the teaching should be wholly 
secular, or whether religious instruction should be given. 

The bill met with the most heated opposition. The 
non-conformists, notably the Birmingham League, wished 
not only for free but for secular public schools, as in the 
United States ; not because they did not believe heartily 
in religion, but because they did not think the Church 
of England or other denominational schools should be 
assisted by the State. They believed with the able and 



294 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

scholarly Rev. E. W. Dale, who said not long ago in 
the Nineteenth Century : 

" Let the secular education of the people be provided 
by secular authorities ; and let the churches, by whatever 
arrangements seem expedient to them, provide for reli- 
gious education at their own cost, and out of school hours. 
This is the true solution of the problem, and the sooner it 
is frankly accepted, the better it will be for the interests 
both of English education, and of English Christianity." 

Forster had said expressly that he did not wish " to 
destroy anything in the existing system which was good, 
if they could avoid it." 

The battle raged so furiously about the religious ques- 
tion, that Forster was glad, at last, to avail himself of the 
help of the Conservatives to carry his bill. It received 
the royal assent, August 9, 1870. 

Mr. Forster was strongly in favor of Bible teaching in 
the schools. He had not been at first, it was said, but 
had been led to it especially by the remark of Canon 
Jackson that " it appeared that the one book in the Eng- 
lish language which was to be excluded by Act of Par- 
liament from the schools, was the Bible." 

Finally, the Cowper-Temple clause, or time-table con- 
science clause, was adopted; by which " all catechisms 
and distinctive dogmatic formularies are excluded from 
rate-supported schools." All religious teaching, if given, 
is given before or after the regular school work. 

Personally Forster favored compulsory education ; but 
yielded his views to please some members of the Cabinet. 
This was obtained by Mr. Mundella, in 1880. Forster's 
aim, as he wrote in his diary, was : "1. To cover the 
country with good schools. 2. To get the parents to 
send their children to school." 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 295 

That the results of the bill have been great, no one 
will deny. In 1870 the average school attendance was 
a little over a million scholars (1,152,389) ; in 1886 it was 
nearly three and a half million (3,438,425) ; " the per- 
centage of the scholars examined, to the estimated popu- 
lation of the country, had risen from 2.86 in 1870 to 8.77 
in 1886," says Mr. Reid, "and the number of school- 
boards estimated in the latter year was 2,225. All this 
was achieved in Forster's lifetime." 

J. G. Pitch, LL.D., in his concise and comprehen- 
sive "iSTotes on American Schools," says, that in 1886 
Great Britain spent for her elementary schools alone 
$35,000,000 ; $17,000,000 of this came from the imperial 
exchequer, $8,500,000 from fees of parents, $3,500,000 
from voluntary subscriptions, $6,000,000 from local 
rates, etc. 

Dr. Fitch says : " The one great safeguard for the 
continued and rapid improvement of education in Amer- 
ica,is the universal interest shown in it by the commu- 
nity. There is no matter of public concern more keenly 
and frequently debated. A complaint of negligence or 
inefficiency, in connection with the schools, arouses the 
indignation of parents, and excites general discussion. 
There is everywhere manifest an eager, almost a rest- 
less, desire to effect improvements and to try new experi- 
ments." 

Since the Education Act of 1870, England seems more 
and more to have shown the same " universal interest " 
in the education of her people. Some of her noblest 
men and women are giving themselves to the work. And 
the end is not yet. 

After the close of Parliament, in the fall of 1870, 
Forster went to Balmoral Castle, as minister in attend- 



296 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

aiice on the Queen. He became most deeply attached 
to his sovereign, and the Queen appreciated his loyalty, 
and desire to serve her. 

He wrote to his wife : " During dinner, the Queen gave 
me, in a black envelope, a photograph of the Crown 
Prince of Prussia, telling me it was his thirty -ninth birth- 
day. When we went to Lochnagar, I tried, through one 
of the gillies, to get a collie. This has reached the 
Queen ; and Lady Ely tells me, she is going to give me 
a collie if she can find one. After dinner she favored 
me with a long talk; and somehow, I do not know how, 
I told her about the children, which interested her. I 
told her, too, about my father and mother, and altogether 
she was most pleasant and kind." 

Surely that father and mother would have been proud 
to have seen their son, after all the struggles of youth, 
risen out of his poverty to his present position of honor 
and trust. 

Dr. Norman Macleod says in his diary : " I preached 
at Balmoral. . . . When last at Balmoral, I met Forster, 
the Cabinet Minister, there. He and Helps and I had 
great arguments on all theological subjects, till very late. 
I never was more impressed by any man as deep, inde- 
pendent, thoroughly honest, and sincere. I conceived a 
great love for him. I never met a statesman, whom, for 
high-minded honesty and justice, I would sooner follow. 
He will be Premier some day." 

Again Forster wrote to his wife : "I am soon off on a 
real mountain walk, with Collins, Prince Leopold's tutor, 
and an active climber, having refused to go out deer- 
shooting." 

Forster was so opposed to killing anything for sport, 
that he would never fish nor shoot. He had all the ten- 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 297 

derness of his mother for the animal creation. He was 
enabled, while in Parliament, to make better provision 
for cattle in transit by railway. " The Vivisection Bill, 
too," says Mr. Reid, " engaged a good deal of his time 
and attention ; and he congratulated himself in his diary, 
upon having got the House to put the frogs back under 
the protection of the measure, the Home Secretary hav- 
ing agreed to exclude them." 

He had no sympathy with the cruelty often practised 
in the professed interest of science. He said : " Vivi- 
section may, in some most rare cases, be useful for the 
prolongation of life, and removal of suffering of man and 
beast ; it is, therefore, allowable when very rarely prac- 
tised by real discoverers. But it is not allowable even 
for them, except with every possible alleviation of pain, 
and ought to be absolutely forbidden by learners and 
general practitioners." 

On February 20, 1871, Mr. Forster introduced the Bal- 
lot Bill, on secret voting. The objection to the open vote 
was that men were often afraid of landlord, or wealthy 
customer, or employer. The measure was fought over 
for twenty-seven nights, — longer than the debate over 
the Education Act. It was defeated in the House of 
Lords. 

Again Forster introduced the bill in 1872, and after 
twenty -three nights of debate, it was sent to the House of 
Lords, and received the royal assent on July 18. 

When the Gladstone ministry was defeated, and 
Disraeli again came to power in 1874, though Fors- 
ter was returned to Parliament after a bitter contest, he 
of course lost his position in the Cabinet. He was then 
a rich man. He had purchased, the previous year, a home 
between the Lakes Grasmere and Windermere, Fox 



298 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

Ghyll, at Ambleside, close to Fox How, the residence 
of his wife's mother, Mrs. Arnold. In this delightful 
scenery, he spent the spring and summer of 1874 with 
his family, and in the autumn came to America with his 
cousin Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, grandson of the first 
baronet. They were, of course, entertained in Kew York. 
The Union League Club gave him a reception " in recog- 
nition of his distinguished service and friendship for 
the Government during the war." Among the callers 
upon him, Forster wrote his wife, was " Mr. Cooper, a 
very generous millionnaire, eighty-four years old, active 
and shrewd, the founder of the Cooper Institute." 

They went to Springfield, 111., to see the statue of 
Lincoln unveiled by President Grant. " Here I was in- 
troduced," wrote Forster, '• to several West Point gen- 
erals, MacDowell and Pope, who commanded large armies 
in the war, and was at once recognized by Sherman. 
There were ten to fifteen thousand of crowd in front, 
and their patience Avas marvellous. The ^ exercises ' 
lasted for hours. There was a laudable endeavor to bring 
in all elements. The prayer was by the Bishop of the 
Methodist African Episcopal Church, from Baltimore, a 
full-blooded negro ; a company of negro volunteers in 
zouave uniform, in a place of honor ; and I must say the 
negro prayer and the negro clothes excelled in taste, on 
the whole." 

After the ceremony there was a reception and banquet, 
one of the toasts being the health of Mr. Forster. He 
wrote to his wife this story of Lincoln told by Mr. 
Judd : — 

"When he was in one of his hardest fights with 
Douglas, who was a strong pro-slavery man, Judd 
looked over the notes of one of his speeches, and said 



WILLIAM EDWARD FOR STEM. 299 

this would not do for their audience ; not anti-slavery 
enough in expression, rather than substance. Lincoln's 
reply was, ' This is all I feel, and I would rather lose the 
election than mislead the people even by an adjective.' " 

Forster went to Colorado, where he enjoyed the grand 
scenery ; to St. Louis, where, on leaving for New Orleans, 
General Sherman said to him, " You will want no let- 
ters ; you are as well known in America as in England : " 
and then to Tennessee, where he visited the house in 
which his father had died twenty years before, the grave- 
yard at Friendsville, where he was buried, and spoke to 
the inmates of the William Forster Home for the daugh- 
ters of Friends, in which they learned housekeeping, and 
went to the Friends' school close by. 

Prom this place Forster went to Baltimore, carefully 
inspecting the schools ; and then to Boston, where he was 
the guest of his friend Charles Francis Adams. Six 
years before this, Adams had presented Forster with a 
copy_-of the works of his grandfather, John Adams, to 
the editing of which he had devoted the greater part of 
eight years. He wrote with the gift : " I find one copy 
which I had reserved for the person whom I most es- 
teem, as well for his stanch and unvarying support of a 
policy of good-will to America, as for his personal quali- 
ties as I have observed them in private intercourse. 
Will you do me the great favor to accept of it ? " 

In Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, Forster 
visited the schools with great interest. In the latter 
city, he dined with President Grant and other distin- 
guished men. When the annexation of Canada was 
mentioned by Grant, Forster said : " If Canada chooses 
one day to leave us, and the next day to join you, we shall 
not object ; but she seems to like to stop with us ; in 



800 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

fact, the lesson you taught us a hundred years ago, has 
made us so treat our colonies that it will be very difficult 
for them to leave us, and we shall stick to them till they 
wish to do so." 

Forster was an ardent supporter of Imperial Federa- 
tion, often speaking upon the subject. He wished "to 
replace the idea of eventual independence, which means 
disunion, by that of association on equal terms, which 
means union." 

Ten years later he presided at a conference on Colonial 
Federation, at Westminster Palace Hotel, and noted in 
his diary that the meeting was " a real success." Forster 
was made president of the committee, and an Imperial 
Federation League was at once organized. He would 
have gone to Canada to have urged the plan, but his ill- 
ness and death prevented. 

Not long before his death, he wrote to Sir George 
Bowen : " My own impression is, that, at first at any rate, 
we had better aim at concert among the governments 
rather than at an Imperial Parliament. . . . We must 
remember that in order to realize Federation, .we only 
want (1) an organization for common defence, and (2) a 
common foreign policy." 

In 1875, after Forster's return from America, he went 
to Edinburgh, accompanied by his wife, received the 
freedom of the city, and was made Lord Kector of 
Aberdeen University, receiving also the freedom of 
Aberdeen. . . . 

In his address to the students, he said : " Who are the 
real governors of the nation ? Not the ministers, who 
are the servants of the sovereign. Not the sovereign, 
who chooses these ministers in order that they may 
carry out the will of the people. Not even the voters, 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 301 

who are, as it were, the machines by which its will is 
discovered, expressed, and registered ; but the men who 
influence this will, and persuade the voters, who regulate 
and modify public opinion by writing, by books or pam- 
phlets or newspaper articles, or sermons or speeches, by 
conversation with acquaintances or friends, and, above 
all, by the example of their lives. Now, surely our 
universities ought to turn out men able in one or other 
of these ways to influence public opinion." 

The following year, the country having been stirred 
by the publication in the Daily News of the Bulgarian 
atrocities, Forster determined to visit the East, and study 
the condition of things. His eldest daughter accompa- 
nied him. . . . 

She speaks of her father as a delightful travelling com- 
panion, though she says : ^' I am afraid we used some- 
times rather to quail at the thoroughness of his explora- 
tions, and to wish in our hearts, after we had performed 
our first duty in a strange town, namely, going to the 
top of the highest tower or spire available, that the sac- 
ristan of the cathedral might be out, so that we should 
be spared our second dut}^, — a thorough examination of 
all the old tombs and monuments inside. 

"My father had a great love for old family records, 
and a wonderful faculty for making out and remember- 
ing the most complicated genealogies and pedigrees. 
For this reason he delighted in old monuments and 
family portraits, whether in public or private collec- 
tions. ... It was a never-ceasing cause of regret to my 
father that he was not more familiar with French and 
German in the way of a speaking knowledge, in addition 
to a written one." 

At Brussels, Forster dined with the King, and then 



302 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEE. 

travelled to Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, 
reaching Constantinople on the middle of September. 
He heard reports from the Bulgarian refugees, and made 
careful notes. He studied the Turks, and found "the 
government beyond description bad, ignorant, inefficient, 
corrupt — places bought or given to despicable favorites, 
merit going absolutely for nothing." 

On his return to England, he addressed his constituents 
on what he had seen ; confirmed the reports of the terri- 
ble cruelties ; but feared the different provinces could 
not have self-government without continued war. He 
urged that Turkey give a constitution to the Christians. 
He was blamed by many Liberals as being too conserva- 
tive, and called " a trimmer," as he had been called before 
in the education warfare. Forster was opposed to the 
Afghanistan and Zulu wars, carried on under the Beacons- 
field ministry. 

When Gladstone came into power in 1880, Forster was 
made Chief Secretary for Ireland. No position under 
the English Government could be more difficult. He 
had been for years deeply interested in the Irish people, 
and it was hoped that the stormy times in that country, 
through his leadership, would become more peaceful. 

There was severe distress in Ireland from bad harvests. 
The Irish people had demanded Home Rule, and as yet 
none of the Cabinet favored it, believing that it would 
lead to a separation of the Union. 

The Irish Land Act had been formed by Mr. Gladstone's 
Government in 1870. "New rights had been conferred 
on tenants with reference to compensation for disturb- 
ance by the act of the landlords, except in the case of 
eviction for non-payment of rent." Mr. Forster saw 
that tenants were being pressed by the landlords, either 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 303 

to secure rents, or to get possession of their houses and 
lands. He proposed a bill providing compensation for 
evicted tenants. At once the landlords opposed this, and 
after heated controversy, the Compensation for Disturb- 
ance Bill was defeated by the House of Lords. 

More than one thousand evictions had taken place in 
the first six months of 1880. Matters were rapidly grow- 
ing from bad to worse. A great sensation was caused by 
the murder of Lord Mountmorris, who was found near 
his home in County Galway with six bullets in his body. 

Boycotting had begun. Captain Boycott, an English- 
man, who had charge of Lord Earne's lands in Connemara, 
had served notices on the tenants. At once the people 
for miles around resolved to have nothing to do with 
him. No one would work for him, and he and his wife 
were obliged to till the fields. The Orangemen sent him 
armed laborers from Ulster to assist him. Then the 
Government, through Forster, sent five hundred infantry 
and ^hree squadrons of cavalry, to protect these men 
while they gathered the crops. 

Boycotting continued. A landlord who had evicted a 
tenant, or a man who bid for a farm from which a tenant 
had been turned out, was " shunned in the street, in the 
shop, in the market-place, even in the place of worship, 
as if he were a leper of old." Crops rotted in the fields. 
When the owner went to sell produce, nobody bought. 
When he and his family went to church, the whole con- 
gregation would rise and leave the place. Cattle and 
sheep were killed or mutilated in the fields at night. 
Men were continually threatened by anonymous letters, 
decorated with coffins, skulls, and swords. 

The Land League leaders were becoming more and 
more hostile to the Government. Mr. Dillon had said, 



304 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

as quoted by Mr. Forster in the House of Commons, that 
'• those in Parliament faithful to the cause of the people 
could paralyze the hands of the Government, and pre- 
vent them from passing such laws as would throw men 
into prison for organizing themselves. In Parliament 
they could obstruct, and outside of it they could set the 
people free to drill and organize themselves." 

In the angry debate Mr. Forster suggested, it is said, 
the use of buckshot for the Irish constabulary, and was 
nicknamed '• Buckshot " by the men who opposed him. 

Fourteen of the Land League leaders were arrested on 
the charge of preventing the payment of rent : Messrs. 
Parnell, Dillon, Biggar, Sullivan, Sexton, and others. Of 
course Forster and Parnell were completely at enmity. 

Landlords came by the score to Mr. Forster, detailing 
their grievances ; poor tenants by the score, telling of 
their want and utter ruin. The Tories, under the leader- 
ship of Lord Salisbury, accused Forster of weakness and 
cowardice in not controlling the outrages ; the Irish 
leaders were angered that he should think or speak of 
coercion. 

Mr. Forster, whether wisely or unwisely, at least with 
the concurrence of the Liberal Government, determined 
to bring in a Protection Bill for Life and Property, which 
empowered the Lord Lieutenant to issue a warrant for 
the arrest of any person whom he might reasonably sus- 
pect of treason, or crimes of intimidation. Mr. Forster 
said in his speech in presenting the Coercion Bill : " This 
has been to me a most painful duty. I never expected 
that I should have to discharge it. ... If I could have 
foreseen that this would be the result of twenty years of 
Parliamentary life, I would have left Parliament rather 
than have undertaken it. But I never was more clear 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 305 

than I am now that it is my duty. I never was more 
clear that the man responsible, as I am, for the adminis- 
tration of the government of Ireland, ought no longer 
to have any part or share in any government which does 
not fulfil its first duty, — the protection of person and 
property, and the security of liberty." 

The opposition to the bill by the Irish party was long 
and bitter. Once during the debate the House sat for 
forty -one and a half hours, from Monday afternoon till 
Wednesday morning. 

Mr. Bright, who had been a sincere friend to Ireland, 
always claiming that " force was no remedy," now favored 
the bill in a speech of great eloquence, feeling that de- 
spite all the sufferings of the Irish people, crime must 
be punished. Gladstone also spoke with his wonted fire 
and power. The bill received the royal assent March 2, 
1881. Gladstone's Irish Land Bill was passed in August 
of the same year. 

Forster was hated worse than ever. His life was in 
danger. He received constantly threatening letters — 
one of these an explosive — and one from a man who 
had dogged his steps with intent to murder, but finally 
determined to spare him for the sake of "the lovely 
girl," his daughter, who was walking beside him in 
Phoenix Park, a place which later was to obtain a sad 
celebrity. In spite of all this Forster never hesitated to 
go among the people, and address them. Sometimes 
such courage won their applause, and voices from the 
crowd would call out, " We admire your pluck ! " 

The speeches of Parnell and other Land Leaguers had 
become so pronounced against Gladstone, then Prime 
Minister, and Forster, that the latter wrote to Gladstone 
suggesting the wisdom of their arrest. Accordingly 



306 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 

Messrs. Parnell, Dilloiij O'Kelly, and others were con- 
fined in Kilmainham prison. The arrests created the 
greatest sensation. England rejoiced exceedingly, and 
hoped the worst was over. 

Soon an address was placarded on the walls of Dublin, 
calling upon the Irish people to pay no rent while their 
leaders were in prison. It was signed by Charles S. Par- 
neli, president, Kilmainham Gaol, followed by the names 
of the other prisoners. 

Forster at once issued a proclamation declaring the 
Land League to be an illegal association, and that its 
meetings would be suppressed by force. 

Murder and other crimes were on the increase, although 
scores of persons had been imprisoned. Mr. Forster wrote 
Mr. Gladstone : " If we could get the country quiet, I 
should be anxious to leave Ireland. While we are fight- 
ing for law and order I cannot desert my post ; but this 
battle over, and the Land Act well at work, I am quite 
sure that the best course for Ireland, as well as for my- 
self, would be my replacement by some one not tarred 
by the coercion brush." 

On January 1, 1882, when some one wished Mr. Fors- 
ter a "happy new year," he replied, "Mine is a more 
modest wish ; it is that it may be a less bad year than 
the last." Early in this year the Queen invited Mr. 
Forster to Osborne to explain to her personally the con- 
dition of Ireland. 

Matters did not improve. The Radicals called for a 
change in the Irish Secretaryship ; man}^ Liberals felt 
that the coercion policy had failed, and the Conserva- 
tives even were prepared to make some concession. The 
American Government had become urgent that those 
prisoners should be released who could prove themselves 
citizens of the United States. 



WILLI AN EDWARD FORSTER. 307 

Mr. Gladstone and liis Cabinet at last decided to 
release Messrs. Parnell, Dillon, and O'Kelly. As Mr. 
Forster considered this a "surrender to the law-break- 
ers," he resigned the secretaryship, and Lord Frederick 
Cavendish became Chief Secretary for Ireland. Mr. Fors- 
ter had worked untiringly, during the two years of his 
secretaryship, without rest or relaxation. " How his 
constitution stood it, was wonderful," says Mr. Jepson, 
his private secretary. " From early morning until late 
at night he was always at work; not perfunctorily work- 
ing, but with the whole of his powerful mind given to his 
task, — given to it with an earnestness, a thoroughness, 
which was one of his most remarkable characteristics. 
He was always anxious to get every possible information 
on any subject he had to deal with. . . . Everything — 
ease, comfort, health — was sacrificed that he might per- 
form his duty." The wear of these years had been almost 
unbearable. But he had come out of the trying ordeal 
withr his life, and that was cause for congratulation. 
How narrowly he had escaped, events soon proved. 

Lord Frederick Cavendish was appointed to his posi- 
tion May 4, 1882, and started for Dublin on the follow- 
ing day. At sunset. May 6, about seven o'clock, after 
the inaugural ceremony, as he was walking with the 
under-secretary, Mr. T. H. Burke, in Phoenix Park, they 
were attacked by four men, and almost cut to pieces. 
The fight was witnessed by several persons passing near 
the walk, who supposed it rough play, and passed on. 
The right arm of young Lord Cavendish was broken. It 
was evident that he had lost his life in trying to save 
his friend Burke, who, acting under Forster, had incurred 
the hatred of the Irish. 

England, and indeed the whole world, was horrified. 



308 WILLIAM EDWARD FOBSTER, 

At the time, I was in England, and I shall never forget 
the sorrow of the nation at the untimely death of the 
beloved son of the Duke of Devonshire, and brother of 
Lord Hartington, the Liberal leader. 

He was buried from the magnificent Chatsworth home, 
fifty thousand persons in attendance. More than half of 
the House of Commons gathered about that open grave 
in the churchyard of that model village Edensor, one of 
the loveliest places in England, while the children sang, 
"Brief life is here our portion." The Queen sent a 
wreath of crimson roses, which the young wife laid upon 
the coffin. 

Forster at once, with a bravery beyond that of most 
men, offered himself to Gladstone, to fill the place thus 
made vacant, even when he knew that his death was 
intended, and not that of Cavendish. 

Government offered ten thousand pounds reward for 
the detection of the murderers, and immediately passed 
a very strong Coercion Bill, which was stoutly resisted 
by the Irish members, who, however, heartily condemned 
the dreadful murder. 

January 13, 1883, the Dublin police arrested twenty 
men suspected of complicity in the Cavendish murder. 
James Carey, a member of the Dublin Town Council, a 
well-to-do contractor and builder, the leader of the Irish 
Invincibles, turned informer. He planned the murder, 
gave the signal for the crime, and witnessed the execu- 
tion. 

Carey told of the repeated attempts to take the life of 
Forster. Once they intended to meet him at the railway 
station on his return from Clare, but were misinformed 
as to the time of his arrival. Again, he was to be shot 
while driving from his lodge to Dublin, and the men who 



WILLIAM ED WARD FORSTER. 309 

murdered Lord Cavendish were lying in wait for him, a 
comrade promising to give the signal of his approach. 
The man's heart failed him, and he allowed the carriage 
to pass. For four successive nights of the week in 
which Forster took his final departure from Ireland, 
fifteen men were waiting to kill him as he entered the 
train for Kingstown, but each time he seemed marvel- 
lously saved from their hands. They turned their atten- 
tion to the faithful Burke, only when they saw that 
Forster had escaped them. 

Five of the Cavendish murderers were hanged, three 
were sentenced to penal servitude for life, and the others 
to various periods of penal servitude. Carey was shot 
on board a ship at sea on his way to the Cape, by a man 
named O'Donnell. Whether the latter was sent by some 
secret society to do the work, was never fully ascer- 
tained. O'Donnell was brought back to London, and 
hanged. 

In- the autumn of 1882 Forster visited Eussia, and 
returned with renewed health and vigor. In 1883 he 
paid another visit to the East, to see for himself what 
changes had been wrought in Bulgaria as a result of the 
Russo-Turkish war, and was delighted at the capacity 
shown for self-government. 

In 1884 he took an active part in the new franchise 
bill, " based on uniform household and lodger franchise 
in counties and boroughs." He was deeply interested 
for General Gordon in the Soudan, and helped to enlist 
the government in the expedition sent to his relief. " I 
can think of nothing but Gordon and the Soudan," he 
wrote in his diary after word came that Gordon was 
dead. 

In the summer of 1885 Forster went to Germany with 



310 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER. 

his daughter, seeming tired and weak from overwork. 
On his return home, he was still weak, and spent most 
of his time in reading, going through all the Waverley 
Novels, Scott's poems, Macaulay's histories, and other 
old favorites. He admired the poetry of his wife's 
brother, Matthew Arnold, and often read his favorite, 
"The Future," and also "The Forsaken Merman." He 
used to say, sometimes, " The doctors are always saying 
I am better, but I never get well." 

The Queen sent often to inquire about his health, and 
the physician sent her daily bulletins till Mr, Forster 
seemed better. 

November 29 he was re-elected for Bradford, but was 
never able to take his seat again in the House of Com- 
mons. The nights of sleeplessness increased. He spent 
much time in reading the Bible, and enjoyed having his 
wife repeat hymns to him. He said to her, "We have 
had some blessed times together ; " and again, " I would 
not have been without this sickness for the world." 

He was gratified at the kind letters that poured in, 
and remarked to his wife, " I did not know people cared 
about me so much." When told that the Friends in their 
meeting had prayed for him, he burst into tears, as he 
said, " The church of my fathers has not forgotten me ! " 

In the winter he went to Torquay, and returned the 
last of February. He thought of, and talked much 
about, Ireland, and was pleased when his daughter sent 
him, as she had been accustomed to do, a bunch of sham- 
rock on St. Patrick's Day. He said often, " I have tried 
to serve my country." 

Sometimes he talked of education matters, and said he 
foresaw a crusade to make all the schools secular, " but," 
he added, " I shall drive them out of that in the House." 



WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTEB. 311 

He grew weaker day by day, but never complained. 
Once he said, in the early part of his illness, " How little 
suffering I have had ! it has been nothing at all compared 
with many." During the latter part he suffered intensely. 
April 2 he went with his wife for a drive, and, before 
he was carried up-stairs, called out a message of thanks 
to the coachman for having got ready so quickl}^ After 
that day he seemed to have more fever. On Monday 
morning, April 5, 1886, his breathing was quick and 
painful. His wife asked if he knew that it was her arm 
that was supporting him. He gave an emphatic assent. 
" Then," says his daughter, " the breath came slower and 
softer, till the last was hardly a sigh, and slowly and 
gently he passed away out of our reach." 

The Queen wrote two days later to Mrs. Forster : " I 
purposely delayed writing at once to you, not wishing to 
intrude on your overwhelming grief for the loss of such 
a husband, so good and so devoted, fearing to add to the 
weight of your affliction ; but to-day I trust I may ven- 
ture to express not only the deep sympathy I feel for 
you, but also the true and sincere concern I feel at the 
loss of one for whom I had the greatest regard and 
respect, and who served his Queen and country bravely, 
truly, and loyally." 

A funeral service was held in Westminster Abbey, 
April 9, attended by a vast throng of his political asso- 
ciates and opponents, and the general public — all differ- 
rences merged in a common sorrow. Saturday, April 10, 
in the midst of thousands from Bradford, Leeds, and 
other towns, William Edward Forster was laid, accord- 
ing to his wish, in the burial-ground at Burley, near his 
home. 

lu Bradford, his memory is perpetuated by a statue. 



812 WILLI A2f EDWARD FOBSTER. 

In Westminster Abbey, a medallion in his memory has 
been placed close to the monument of his uncle, Sir 
Thomas Fowell Buxton. 

On Friday, August 1, 1890, a bronze statue of Mr. 
Forster was unveiled in London, on the banks of the 
Thames, in front of the offices of the London School 
Board, in the midst of sympathetic thousands. The 
statue was modelled by the sculptor, Eichard Pinker. 
On the granite pedestal are the words : " William Edward 
Forster, born July 11, 1818 ; died April 5, 1886. To his 
wisdom and courage England owes the establishment 
throughout the land of a national system of Elementary 
Education." 

The son of the Quaker preachers wrought great good 
for England. He was sometimes too blunt in speech, 
said his friends, but he was affectionate by nature, and 
true-hearted. Born in poverty, and unsettled as to his 
life-work, he found it at last, and did it heroically. The 
Education Act of 1870 will go on forever in its far- 
reaching influences. Mr. Eeid says truly, " If any visi- 
ble and tangible memorial of the life of such a man as 
Mr. Forster were needed to preserve his name from 
oblivion, it would be found not in carven marble or 
moulded bronze, but in the schoolhouses which, rising in 
every town and village in the land he loved so well, bear 
witness to the success of the Education Act, of which 
he was the author." 




EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 



LORD MELBOURNE, Prime Minister: "Well, Mr. 
Disraeli, what is your idea in entering Parliament ? 
What is your ambition ? " 

Disraeli, a young Jew, without fortune or influence : 
" To be Prime Minister of England, my lord ! " 

" What audacity ! " said the world. And the world 
looked on and wondered, while the Jew, through obsta- 
cles almost insurmountable, steadily worked on till the 
prize was won. 

Benjamin Disraeli was born in London, December 21, 
1804. His ancestors formerly lived in Spain, but were 
driven out by the Inquisition, and settled in Venice. In 
1748 Benjamin's grandfather came to England, acquired 
a moderate fortune, and hoped to found a great family 
like Rothschild. His wife, a proud woman, tired of the 
persecution and social ostracism of the Jews, wished to 
have her husband abandon his ancestral faith, but this he 
refused to do. She was " so mortified," says her grand- 
son, " by her social position, that she lived until eighty 
without indulging a tender expression." 

The hopes of both parents centred in their only 
child, Isaac. They expected him to become a great 
financier. To their amazement and extreme disappro- 
bation, he became a bookworm. He abhorred trade. 

313 



314 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

He not only, says his son, never entered into the politics 
of the day, but he could never understand them. He 
never was connected with any body or set of men, com- 
rades of school or college, or confederates in that public 
life which, in England, is perhaps the only foundation 
of real friendship. 

" He was a complete literary character, a man who 
really passed his life in a library. Even marriage pro- 
duced no change in these habits. He rose early to enter 
the chamber where he lived alone with his books, and at 
night his lamp was ever lit in the same walls. He dis- 
liked business, and he never required relaxation ; he 
was absorbed in his pursuits. 

" In London his only amusement was to ramble among 
booksellers ; if he entered a club, it was only to go into 
the library. In the country he scarcely ever left his 
room but to saunter in abstraction upon a terrace, muse 
over a chapter, or coin a sentence. He had not a single 
passion or prejudice.'' 

His disappointed parents had tried every resource and 
failed. They placed him in a counting-house in Holland, 
but he wrote poems against commerce, when they hoped 
he would be learning trade. He read Voltaire and 
Rousseau, and was destined, as might have been seen 
from the first, to become an author. 

What the boy might have been with congenial sur- 
roundings, with a mother who was proud of him and who 
sympathized with him, the world can only conjecture. 
Intellects, like hearts, are usually stunted from lack of 
warmth and sunshine. 

Before he was thirty he produced "Curiosities of 
Literature," a mine of information, showing wide read- 
ing and intense love for it. He married a Jewess, Maria 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 315 

Basevi, a gentle, affectionate woman, and his life was a 
happy one. He lived in his own splendid library, and 
amid the vast treasures of the British Museum. 

Their first child, Sarah, a woman of unusual powers, 
became the idol of her brother Benjamin. The two 
younger children were Ralph and James. 

Benjamin seems to have inherited his father's love of 
books, his grandmother's " strong intellect," and many 
characteristics from his grandfather. " He was," says 
Disraeli, ^^a man of ardent character, sanguine, cour- 
ageous, speculative, and fortunate ; with a temper which 
no disappointment could disturb, and a brain full of 
resources." 

Benjamin inherited his mother's affectionate nature. 
Although he might say in " Tancred," " No affections 
and a great brain — these are the men to command the 
world," his devotion to his sister, and later to a wife 
fifteen years his senior, are among the most beautiful 
things of his brilliant life. 

Isaac Disraeli withdrew from the Jewish Church, and 
became, with his entire household, members of the 
Church of England. He said, " The inventions of the 
Talmudical doctors, incorporated in their ceremonies, 
have bound them hand and foot, and cast them into the 
caverns of the lone and sullen genius of rabbinical 
Judaism, cutting them off from the great family of man- 
kind, and perpetuating their sorrow and their shame." 

Benjamin was placed at the school of E-ev. John 
Poticary at Blackheath, where he remained for several 
years. That he was the " spoiled darling," described in 
" Vivian Grey," is doubtless true. Vivian, nearly ten, is 
placed at the school of Dr. Fhimmery. " ' I am told, my 
dear,' observed Mrs. Grey, one day after dinner, to her 



316 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

husband — " ^ I am told, my dear, that Dr. Flummery's 
would do very well for Vivian. Nothing can exceed the 
attention which is paid to the pupils. There are sixteen 
young ladies, all the daughters of clergymen, merely to 
attend to the morals and the linen ; terms very moder- 
ate — one hundred guineas per annum, for all under six 
years of age, and few extras, only for fencing, pure 
milk, and the guitar. Mrs. Metcalf has both her boys 
there, and she says their progress is astonishing. . . , 
What do you say to Flummery's, Grey ? ' 

" ^ My dear, do what you like. I never trouble myself, 
you know, about these matters.' 

" The young Vivian had not, by the cares that fathers 
are always heirs to, yet reminded his parents that boys 
are anything else but playthings. The intercourse be- 
tween father and son was, of course, extremely limited ; 
for Vivian was, as yet, the mother's child ; Mr. Grey's 
parental duties being confined to giving his son a glass 
of claret per diem, pulling his ears with all the awk- 
wardness of literary affection, and trusting to God ^ that 
the urchin would never scribble.' " 

After some years*at the school, where " sixteen young 
ladi-es attended to the morals and the linen," Benjamin 
was sent, at fifteen, to a school at Walthamstow. He 
would have preferred Eton, which he has so graphically 
described in "Coningsby," but his pareiits doubtless 
feared that he would be subject to ridicule on account 
of his race, and his life, perhaps, embittered. 

The trials of Contarini Fleming at college are doubt- 
less those of his own life. " I was placed," says Con- 
tarini, " in the heart of a little and a busy world. For 
the first time in my life I was surrounded by struggling 
and excited beings. Joy, hope, sorrow, ambition, craft, 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFZELD. 317 

courage, wit, dulness, cowardice, beneficence, awkward- 
ness, grace, avarice, generosity, Avealth, poverty, beauty, 
hideousness, tyranny, suffering, hypocrisy, truth, love, 
hatred, energy, inertness, they were all there, and all 
sounded, and moved and acted about me. 

'' Light laughs, and bitter cries, and deep imprecations, 
and the deeds of the friendly, the prodigal, and the 
tyrant, and the exploits of the brave, the graceful, and 
the gay, and the flying words of native wit, and the 
pompous sentences of acquired knowledge — how new, 
how exciting, how wonderful ! 

'^ Did I tremble ? Did I sink into my innermost self ? 
Did I fly ? Never. As I gazed upon them, a new prin- 
ciple rose up in my breast, and I perceived only beings 
whom I was determined to control. They came up to 
me with a curious glance of half-suppressed glee, breath- 
less and mocking. They asked me questions of gay 
nonsense with a serious voice and a solemn look. I 
answered in their kind. On a sudden I seemed endowed 
with new powers, and blessed with the gift of tongues." 

The fight at college, when Contarini, driven to mad- 
ness, severely pounds the leader of two hundred boys, 
is probably drawn from life. 

Dissatisfied and unhappy, young Disraeli left school, 
and studied in his father's library, for twelve hours a 
day, as did Vivian. " He had laid the first foundations 
of accurate classical knowledge under the tuition of the 
learned Dallas ; and twelve hours a day, and self-banish- 
ment from society, overcame, in twelve months, the 
ill effects of his imperfect education. The result of this 
extraordinary exertion may easily be conceived. At the 
end of twelve months, Vivian, like many other young 
enthusiasts, had discovered that all the wit and wisdom 



318 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELB. 

of the world were concentrated in some fifty antique 
volumes, and he treated the unlucky moderns with the 
most sublime spirit of hauteur imaginable. A chorus in 
the Medea, that painted the radiant sky of Attica, dis- 
gusted him with the foggy atmosphere of Great Britain ; 
and while Mrs. Grey was meditating a sejour at Brighton, 
her son was dreaming of the Gulf of Salamis." 

The handsome lad had become ambitious ; indeed, he 
had been ambitious from his childhood. The grand- 
father's hope, and speculative nature, were in him. 
As in the case of Contarini Fleming, "the clouds 
seemed to clear off from the dark landscape of my 
mind, aud vast ambition might be distinguished on the 
far horizon, rearing its head like a mighty column. My 
energies stirred within me, and seemed to pant for the 
struggle and the strife. A deed was to be done ; but 
what ? I entertained at this time a deep conviction that 
life must be intolerable, unless I were the greatest of 
men. It seemed that I felt within me the power that 
could influence my kind." 

Isaac Disraeli, fearing that this bright son might 
become an author, urged him to enter the law. That 
Benjamin had no great liking for it, is shown in Vivian 
Grey's experience. " In the plenitude of his ambition, 
he stopped one day to inquire in what manner he could 
obtain his magnificent ends. 'The bar — pooh! law 
and bad jokes till we are forty : and then, with a most 
brilliant success, the prospect of gout and- a coronet. 
Besides, to succeed as an advocate, I must be a great 
lawyer, and to be a great lawyer I must give up my 
chance of being a great man. The services in war time 
are fit only for desperadoes (and that truly am I), but, 
in peace, are fit only for fools. The Church is more 



THE EARL OF BEACUNSFIELD. 319 

rational. I should certainly like to act Wolsey, but 
the thousand and one chances are against me ; and 
truly I feel 7?ii/ destiny should not be a chance.' '' 

At seventeen, however, Disraeli began the study of 
law. He was eager for a career, but he had to wait. 
For three years he studied faithfully, probably with 
very little rest in it. He was exceedingly fond of 
society, and met at his father's table prominent men 
like Wilson Croker, then Secretary to the Admiralty ; 
Samuel Rogers ; John Murray, proprietor of the Quar- 
terly/ Review, and others. He had always been interested 
in political history, and now, when the Catholic question 
and Reform were before the people, he began to write 
on such subjects for the press. 

He was fortunate at this time, as many a Raphjael 
has been, to have a Joanna, " Duchess of Sora, and 
Prefectissa of Rome," for his helper and adviser. Mrs. 
Austen, wife of a prominent solicitor, lived near the 
Disraeli home. She was remarkable in conversation, 
an artist, and a musician. She stimulated the youth, 
invited him to meet cultivated persons in her home, 
and felt that he would be a power in the world. 

It has been suggested that Mrs. Austen perhaps 
assisted him in writing his first book, " Vivian Grey." 
At all events, the book, written by this youth of twenty- 
one, produced a great sensation in London society. It 
is a satire in which well-known persons were graphically 
depicted. Everybody read it, and everybody asked, 
^' Who is intended ? " Several keys were published, 
and one in 1827 ran through ten editions in a year. 

yivian Grey is young Disraeli, who wishes to become 
Prime Minister. He has made up his mind that he 
lieeds influence only. "How many a powerful noble/' 



320 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

he says, " wants only wit to be a minister ! and what 
wants Vivian Grey to attain the same end ? That 
noble's influence. ... I have the mind for* the con- 
ception; and I can perform right skilfully upon the 
most splendid of musical instrumentSj — the human 
voice, — to make those conceptions beloved by others. 
There wants but one thing more, — courage, pure, per- 
fect courage ; and does Vivian Grey know fear ? " 

Vivian forms a political alliance with a nobleman, 
the Marquis of Carabas ; and to make the new party 
a success, he wins to its support an able politician, 
Frederick Cleveland, who, finding himself betrayed as 
he believes, challenges Vivian, and is killed in the duel. 

Mrs. Felix Lorraine, or "Mephistopheles, one or the 
other, perhaps hoth,^^ is an intriguing but fascinating 
woman, who professes to love Vivian, but deserts him 
for Cleveland, and is repaid by the revenge of the 
former. 

Vivian travels abroad after his political plans come 
to naught, and falls in love with Violet Fane, who dies 
in his arms as they sit together at the twilight hour. 
"The sun had already sunk behind the mountains, whose 
undulating forms were thrown into dark shadow against 
the crimson sky. The thin crescent of the new moon 
floated over the eastern hills, whose deep woods glowed 
with the rosy glories of twilight. Over the peak of a 
purple mountain glittered the solitary star of evening. 
. . . What heart has not acknowledged the influence of 
this hour, — the sweet and soothing hour of twilight; 
the hour of love, the hour of adoration, the hour of rest ! 
When we think of those we love, only to regret that 
we have not loved more dearly : when we remember 
our enemies, only to forgive them." 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 321 

The book contained clever conversations, sarcasm, 
wit, and stirring incidents, and made the young author 
famous. After it was published he became ill, with 
fits of giddiness. Probably he had written it as he 
describes the writing of the novel "^ Manstein " in 
Contarini Fleming, and had overtaxed body and brain. 
" I began writing some hours before noon, nor did I 
ever cease. My thoughts, my passion, the rush of my 
invention, were too quick for my pen. Page followed 
page ; as a sheet was finished, I threw it on the floor. 
I was amazed at the rapid and prolific production, yet 
I could not stop to Avonder. In half a dozen hours I 
sank back utterly exhausted, with an aching frame. 
I rang the bell, ordered some refreshment, and walked 
about the room. ... I set to again, and it was midnight 
before I retired to my bed." 

The second day he finished the first volume. " The 
third morning I had less inclination to write. I read 
over and corrected what I had composed ; this warmed 
up my fancy, and in the afternoon I executed several 
chapters of my second volume. ... In depicting the 
scenes of society in which my hero was forced to 
move, I suddenly dashed not only into the most slash- 
ing satire, but even into malignant personality. All 
the bitterness of my heart, occasioned by my wretched 
existence among their false circles, found its full vent. 
Never was anything so imprudent. Everybody figured, 
and all parties and opinions alike suffered. . . . 

" The incidents were unnatural, the serious characters 
exaggerations, the comic ones caricatures ; the wit was 
too often flippant, the philosophy too often forced ; yet 
the vigor was remarkable, the license of an uncurbed 
imagination not without its charms ; and, on the whole, 



322 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

there breathed a freshness which is rarely found, and 
which, perhaps, with all my art and knowledge, I may 
never again afford ; and indeed when I recall the mag- 
nificent enthusiasm, the glorious heat, with which this 
little work was written, I am convinced, that, with all 
its errors, the spark of true creation animated its fiery 
page." 

Young Disraeli was obliged to discontinue the study 
of law, and go abroad with the Austens. They trav- 
elled through France, Switzerland, to Milan, Venice, 
Florence, and Geneva, and back into France. The 
author was somewhat better, but still an invalid. 

Meantime, Isaac Disraeli had moved away from Lon- 
don with its libraries, to Bradenham, an old manor-house 
in Buckinghamshire, two miles from High Wycombe. 
Here, in the country air, the young son grew stronger 
in health, and was finally able to write a second part 
to "Vivian Grey;" also "The Young Duke," published in 
1831 ; and three burlesques, — " Ixion in Heaven " (the 
father of the gods being George IV.), the " Infernal 
Marriage," and " Popanilla " (a satire on the English 
Constitution). 

Bradenham, which Disraeli describes in " Endymion " 
as the place to which Mr. Ferrars retired, was a cher- 
ished home to them all. "At the foot of the Berkshire 
downs, and itself on a gentle elevation, there is an old 
hall with gable ends and lattice windows, standing in 
grounds which once were stately, and where there are 
yet glade-like terraces of yew trees, which give an air 
of dignity to a neglected scene. In the front of the 
hall, huge gates of iron, highly wrought, and bearing 
an ancient date as well as the shield of a noble house, 
opened on a village green, round which were clustered 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELI). 323 

the cottages of the parish, with only one exception, 
and that was the vicarage house, a modern building, 
not without taste, and surrounded by a small but bril- 
liant garden. The church was contiguous to the hall, 
and had been raised by the lord on a portion of his 
domain. 

"Behind the hall and its enclosure, the country was 
common land but picturesque. It had once been a 
beech forest, and though the timber had been greatly 
cleared, the green land was still occasionally dotted, 
sometimes with groups and sometimes with single trees, 
while the juniper, which here abounded and rose to a 
great height, gave a rich wildness to the scene, and 
sustained its forest character." 

Here at Bradenham, with horses and dogs, the family 
of Isaac Disraeli lived in comfort and quiet. Benjamin's 
health finally grew more impaired. He could not write 
a line without effort. He desired to travel, especially 
in th^ Holy Land; but for some reason, probably finan- 
cial, the desire was not gratified. 

Again the Austens probably came to his aid, for he 
started in June, 1830, with a young friend of talent 
and fortune, William Meredith, who was engaged to 
be married to his only sister, Sarah. 

They went to Spain, where they enjoyed the hospi- 
tality of some distinguished men, to Cyprus, Jaffa, 
Jerusalem, and to Greece. Benjamin writes bright let- 
ters to his sister and mother, wants to hear "all about 
Bradenham, about dogs and horses, orchards, gardens ; 
who calls, where you go, who my father sees in London, 
what is said. Never mind public news : there is no 
place like Bradenham, and each moment I feel better 
I want to come back." A year after he began his 



324 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

journey he writes home : " How I long to be with him 
[father], dearest of men, flashing our quills together, 
standing together in our chivalry as we will do, now 
that I have got the use of my brain for the first time 
in my life." 

The coming of the two young men was eagerly 
awaited at Bradenham. Mr. Meredith and Sarah were 
to be married as soon as he returned. Just as they 
were leaving Alexandria for England, young Meredith 
was attacked with small-pox, and died after a brief 
illness. Disraeli came home alone, with " inexpressible 
sorrow ; " Sarah Disraeli was widowed in heart for life, 
and never accepted marriage. 

Her brother could not bring himself to take up the 
law again, now that he was restored to health. He 
longed to become a great poet, and with this longing 
in his heart, wrote the " prose poem " of Contarini 
Fleming, the most beautiful in its descriptions of any 
of his novels: the most fervid, and in some respects 
the best. As a picture of a true and lasting affection 
it is rarely equalled. 

It was published anonymously in 1832, and won 
immediate success. " Goethe and Beckford," says Mr. 
Disraeli, "were impelled to communicate their unsoli- 
cited opinions of it to its anonymous author, and I have 
since seen a criticism of it by Heine, of which any 
writer might be justly proud." Milman said it was in 
no way inferior to " Childe Harold." 

The young poet, Contarini, goes to college; eager to 
see Venice, he escapes from the place where he feels 
that he is learning nothing, and starts on his journey. 
He meets a famous artist who gives him a book in 
which are the talismanic words: "Be patient; cherish 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 325 

hope ; read more ; ponder less. Nature is more power- 
ful than education ; time will develop everything; trust 
not overmuch in the blessed Magdalen ; learn to protect 
yourself.'' 

He writes a tragedy ; but somewhat discouraged by 
his father, Avho acknowledges that his son may become 
a Homer, but that it is " perhaps the most improbable 
incident that can occur," he consigns it to the flames. 
^' The high poetic talent," says Baron Fleming, the 
father, — " as if to prove that a poet is only, at the best, 
a mild, although a beautiful error of nature, — the high 
poetic talent is the rarest in creation." 

He arrives in Venice, meets and loves one of his own 
ancient house, Alceste Contarini, who is promised to a 
man whom she does not love. The poet offers her his 
life-long devotion. 

" I am young, Alceste, the shadow of my mind has 
not yet fallen over the earth. Yet there is that within 
me, — and at this moment I prophesy, — there is that 
within me which may yet mould the mind and fortunes 
of my race ; and of this heart, capable of these things, 
the fountains are open, Alceste, and they flow for you." 

He rescued her from her approaching marriage of the 
hand and not the heart, married her, and took her at 
once to Greece. Here they enjoyed each other and 
nature. They walked at sunset. " A Grecian sunset ! 
The sky is like the neck of a dove, the rocks and waters 
are bathed with a violet light. Each moment it changes, 
each moment it shifts into more graceful and more 
gleaming shadows. And the thin, white moon is above 
all, the thin, white moon, followed by a single star — 
like a lady by a page. 

" I could have lived witli Alceste Contarini in a soli- 



326 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

tude forever. I desired nothing more than to enjoy 
existence with such a companion. I would have com- 
municated to her all my thoughts and feelings. I would 
have devoted to her solitary ear the poetry of my being. 
Such a life might not suit others. Others, influenced by 
a passion hot less ardent, may find its flame fed by the 
cares of life, cherished by its duties and pleasures, and 
flourishing amid the travail of society. All is an affair 
of organization. . . . 

"We had no books, no single source of amusement 
but our own society, and yet the day always appeared 
a moment. . . . Talk of fame and romance — all the 
glory and adventure in the world are not worth one 
single hour of domestic bliss ! " 

A year after, Contarini is walking by the sea, having 
left her at home for a brief time. Suddenly he sees her 
coming towards him on the sands. He hurries to meet 
her, but clasps only vacancy. She is dead at home, with 
her dead infant just born. 

He quits Greece j he travels, he writes, but life is 
never the same. 

Disraeli now wrote a poem called " The Eevolutionary 
Epic," and read it at a party at Mrs. Austen's. Magros, 
the genius of Feudalism, and Lyridon, the genius of 
Federalism, plead their cause. The one tells the virtues 
of the former, the other the virtues of the latter : liberty, 
fraternity, and equality. The poem concludes with the 
conquest of Italy by Napoleon. He wrote three cantos, 
and fifty copies were primed. The public was indifferent 
to the poem, and it was never finished. 

" The Wondrous Tale of Alroy," an Oriental fiction, 
was published in 1833. Alroy obtains by supernatural 
assistance the sceptre of Kiug Solomon, and leads a 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 327 

most adventurous life as the sovereign of the Hebrew 
race. The book was well received, and considered highly- 
original and rich in description. Mrs. Jameson said, 
" reading it was like riding an Arab." 

Disraeli was now thirty-one years of age, handsome, 
travelled, ambitious, and a brilliant talker. The salons 
of the great in London were open to him. Bulwer and 
Tom Moore and Lady Morgan and Lady Blessington all 
made him welcome. N. P. Willis, the American, met 
him at the house of the latter. " I dined,'-' he says, " at 
Lady Blessington's, in company with several authors, 
three or four noblemen, and an exquisite or two. The 
authors were Bulwer the novelist, and his brother, the 
statist ; Procter (better known as Barry Cornwall) ; 
Disraeli, the author of ' Vivian Grey,' and Fonblanque, 
of the Examiner. The principal nobleman was the Earl 
of Durham, and the principal exquisite (though the 
word scarcely applies to the magnificent scale on which 
nature made him, and on which he made himself) was 
Count d'Orsay. [The Count was the son-in-law of the 
great beauty Lady Blessington. His wife had separated 
from him after two years of marriage, and he had 
remained in the home of her stepmother.] 

" Disraeli had arrived before me, and sat in the deep 
window looking out upon Hyde Park, with the last rays 
of daylight reflected from the gorgeous gold flowers of 
a splendidly embroidered waistcoat. 

" Disraeli has one of the most remarkable faces I ever 
saw. He is lividly pale, and but for the energy of his 
action and the strength of his lungs, would seem a victim 
to consumption. His eye is as black as Erebus, and has 
the most mocking, lying-in-wait sort of expression con- 
ceivable. His mouth is alive with a kind of working 



328 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

and impatient nervousness, and when he bursts forth, as 
he does constantly, with a partially successful cataract 
of expression, it assumes a curl of triumphant scorn 
that would be worthy of Mephistopheles. His hair is 
as extraordinary as his taste in waistcoats. A thick, 
heavy mass of jet-black ringlets falls over his left cheek 
almost to his collarless stock, while on the right temple 
it is parted and put away with the smooth carelessness 
of a girl's." 

When Disraeli describes Beckford, the friend of Byron, 
Willis says : " I might as well attempt to gather up the 
foam of the sea as to convey an idea of the extraordinary 
language in which he clothed his description. There 
were, at least, five words in every sentence that must 
have been very much astonished at the use they were 
put to, and yet no others, apparently, could so well have 
conveyed his idea. Disraeli talked like a race-horse 
approaching the winning-post, every muscle in action, 
and the utmost energy of expression flung out in every 
burst. It is a great pity he is not in Parliament." 

In June, 1832, Disraeli offered himself as a candidate 
to the electors of High Wycombe, as a Eadical, in favor 
of the ballot and triennial Parliaments. Bulwer worked 
for him, and procured commendatory letters from 
O'Connell, Hume, and others. Prime Minister Gray's 
son was the opposing candidate. 

Disraeli appeared among his constituents in an open 
carriage drawn by four horses, dressed in his usual 
fantastic manner, to attract attention : loud shirt, coat 
with pink lining, etc. He made a brilliant impromptu 
speech. " All Wycombe was assembled," he said after- 
wards. " Feeling it was the crisis, I jumped upon the 
portico of the 'Bed Lion,' and gave it to them for an 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELI). 329 

Lour and a quarter. I can give you no idea of the effect. 
It made them all mad. A great many absolutely cried. 
I never made so many friends in my life, and converted 
so many enemies. All the women are on my side, and 
■wear my colors, pink and white." 

He failed, but he was not disheartened. In the 
autumn he offered himself a second time. He said to his 
audience : " I come before you to oppose this disgusting 
system of factions ; I come forward wearing the badge 
of no party and the livery of no faction. ... I will 
withhold my support from every ministry which will 
not originate some great measure to ameliorate the 
condition of the louver orders." He failed a second 
time. 

Hearing that a vacancy Avas expected at Marylebone, 
he offered himself there. He was asked on what he 
intended to stand. With his usual independence he 
replied, " On my head." 

The Duke of Wellington had become interested in 
him, and said, " Something must be done for Disraeli, 
as a man of his acquirements and reputation must not 
be throw^n away." D'Orsay painted his picture. Lord 
Lyndhurst was his friend and helper. 

" Peel was most gracious," he wrote his sister. '^ He 
is a very great man indeed, and they all seem afraid of 
him. ... I reminded him by ray dignified familiarity 
both that he was an ex-minister, and I a present 
Radical." 

He next tried Taunton, and failed. If he was ever 
for a moment discouraged, he did not acknowledge it 
even to himself. He knew that he had little money, and 
worst of all, his race was a decided objection. He was 
a Jew^, and he must have felt it keenly, as his grand- 



330 THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

mother had before him. But he had "the courage, pure, 
perfect courage," that he had said in " Vivian Grey " was 
the one thing needed. 

He wrote to his sister Sarah : " As for Taunton itself, 
the enthusiasm of Wycombe is a miniature to it ; and I 
believe in point of energy, eloquence, and effect, I have 
far exceeded all my former efforts." 

Three days later he wrote : " I live in a rage of 
enthusiasm ; even my opponents promise to vote for me 
next time. The fatigue is awful. Two long speeches 
to-day and nine hours canvass on foot in a blaze of 
repartee. I am quite exhausted, and can scarcely see to 
write." Busy as he was, he did not forget to v/rite to 
his sister. " My letters are shorter than Napoleon's," 
he writes, " but I love you more than he did Josephine." 

In one of his speeches, Disraeli had spoken of the 
Whigs " grasping the bloody hand of O'Connell." The 
latter read the speech, and, in an address in Dublin, told 
how he had helped this young politician at Wycombe, 
and been thus rewarded. 

" He calls me a traitor," said O'Connell. " My answer 
to this is, he is a liar. His life is a living lie. He is 
the most degraded of his species and kind, and England 
is degraded in tolerating and having on the face of her 
society a miscreant of his abominable, foul, and atro- 
cious nature. His name shows that he is by descent a 
Jew. They were once the chosen people of God. 

'^ There were miscreants amongst them, however, alas ! 
and it must certainly have been from one of those that 
Disraeli descended. He possesses just the qualities of 
the impenitent thief that died upon the cross, whose 
name I verily believe must have been Disraeli. For 
aught I know, the present Disraeli is descended from 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 331 

him ; and with the impression that he is, I now forgive 
the heir-at-law of the blasphemous thief that died upon 
the cross." 

Of course Disraeli was angry. He challenged the son 
of O'Connell, — the father, having killed one man in a 
duel, had made a vow that he would never fight again, — 
but the son, having fought one duel for his father, 
declined to fight another. As soon as the affair was 
known, Disraeli was taken into custody by the police, and 
made to give £500 bonds to keep -the peace. Disraeli 
wrote a stinging reply to O'Connell in the Times. : — 

" I am not one of those public beggars that we see 
swarming with their obtrusive boxes in the chapels of 
your creed, nor am I in possession of a princely revenue 
arising from a starving race of fanatical slaves. 'Never- 
theless, I have a deep conviction that the hour is at 
hand when I shall be more successful, and take my 
place in that proud assembly of which Mr. O'Connell 
avows his wish no longer to be a member. 

^' I expect to be a representative of the j)eople before 
the repeal of the union. We shall meet again at 
Philippi [House of Commons], and rest assured that, 
confident in a good cause, and in some energies which 
have not been altogether unimproved, I will seize the 
first opportunity of inflicting upon you a castigation 
which will make you at the same time remember and 
repent the insults that you have lavished upon 

" Benjamix Disraeli." 

Disraeli was now badly in debt for election and other 
expenses. He had borrowed also to give to some of his 
impecunious friends in high social standing. A sheriff^s 



4 

332 THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

officer had been sent at least once to arrest him for debt. 
Georg Brandes, in his scholarly study of Lord Beacons- 
field says, "He offered himself for Shrewsbury, and a 
statement, published on this occasion by his opponents, 
shows that during the years from 1838 to 1841 alone, 
there were fifteen different claims laid upon him for 
debts, for sums varying from twenty pounds to seven 
hundred pounds, and amounting altogether to twenty 
thousand pounds." 
r- These debts must have harassed him greatly, for he 
was not insensible to such obligations. He says in 
" Henrietta Temple," which was published in 1836, and 
was written in the midst of these calls for money : 
" Debt is the prolific mother of folly and crime ; it taints 
the course of life in all its dreams. Hence so many 
unhappy marriages, so many prostituted pens, and venal 
politicians. It hath a small beginning, but a giant's 
growth and strength. When we wake the monster, we 
wake our master, who haunts us at all hours, and shakes 
his whip of scorpions forever in our sight. The slave 
hath no overseer so severe. Faustus, when he signed 
the bond with blood, did not secure a doom more 
terrific." 

Later, in his novel " Sybil," when a rich marriage had 
overcome his poverty, Disraeli had not forgotten the 
horrors of debt. " To be harassed about money," he 
says, "is one of the most disagreeable incidents of life. 
It ruffles the temper, lowers the spirits, disturbs the 
rest, and finally breaks up the health." 

During these years of pecuniary distress, Disraeli 
wrote, besides "Henrietta Temple," — " Venetia," pub- 
lished in 1837, and dedicated to Lord Lyndhurst, in 
which, he said in the preface, he " had attempted to 



THE EABL OF BEACONSFIELD. 333 

shadow forth two of the most renowned and refined 
spirits that have adorned these our latter days.'' 

These two were Byron and Shelley. 

He had also written several political pamphlets : 
" The Crisis Examined/' in 1834 ; " The Vindication of 
the British Constitution," in 1835 ; and " The Letters of 
Bunnymede/' in 1836. The latter, nineteen in number, 
addressed to Sir Kobert Peel and other members of the 
Government, caused a decided sensation. He wrote his 
sister : ' The Letters of Bunnymede are the only things 
talked of in London, especially the latter ones. The 
author is unknown, and Avill probably so remain." 

He also wrote her : " On Tuesday I dined at Lynd- 
hurst's and met Lord Boden, . . . and Lockhart, whom 
Lyndhurst asked that he [Lockhart] might review the 
* Vindication.' Chance ! he never spoke a word. He is 
known in society by the name of < The Viper ; ' but if he 
tries to sting me he will find my heel of iron." 

Matters were now to change for Disraeli. At the 
house of Bulwer, in 1832, he writes his sister : '' I was 
introduced ^ by particular desire ' to Mrs. Wyndham 
Lewis, a pretty little woman, a flirt, and a rattle ; indeed, 
gifted with a volubility I should think unequalled, and 
of which I can convey no idea. She told me that she 
liked ' silent, melancholy men.' I answered ' that I had 
no doubt of it.' " 

Probably Disraeli was pleased with Mrs. Lewis's in- 
terest. He says in ^' Coningsby," " There is something 
very fascinating in the first idea that your career inter- 
ests a charming woman. ... A woman who likes ambi- 
tious men must be no ordinary character ; clearly a sort 
of heroine." 

Mr. Lewis was a rich member of Parliament for Maid- 



334 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD 

stone. Disraeli's friendship with the Lewis family had 
deepened through these five years. The death of Wil- 
liam ly., in 1837, dissolved Parliament, and on July 27 
of the same year, Mr. Disraeli was returned for Maid- 
stone, as the colleague of Mr. Wyndham Lewis, and 
at his request. The friendship " of the pretty little 
woman, a flirt, and a rattle," had done much, and was 
to do far more, for the young author. 

Disraeli had at last won the coveted prize, and 
November 15, 1837, took his seat in the House of Com- 
mons, on the second bench, just behind Sir Robert Peel. 
Queen Victoria had come to the throne, and to her he 
was ever a most devoted subject. 

He made his first speech December 7, 1837, on a 
debate relating to the Irish fund. '^^ His appearance," 
says Froude, '^ was theatrical as usual. He was dressed 
in a bottle-green frock-coat, with a white waistcoat, 
collarless, and with needless display of gold chain. 
His face was lividly pale, his voice and manner pecu- 
liar. He began naturally and sensibly, keeping to the 
point of the debate. He was cheered by his own side, 
and might have got through tolerably enough ; but the 
gentlemen below the gangway had determined that his 
Philippi should not end in a victory." 

Every sentence was received with cheers and laughter. 
" I shall not trouble the House at any length." (Hear^ 
hear ! and laughter.) " I do not affect to be insensible 
to the difficulty of my position." (Renewed laughter.) 

When the tumult was the wildest, he said, " I wish 
I really could induce the House to give me five minutes 
more. " (Roars of laughter.) ..." I am not at all sur- 
prised, sir, at the reception I have met with." (Con- 
tinued laughter.) " I have begun several times, many 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELI). 335 

things, and have often succeeded at last." (Question.) 
" Ay, sir, I will sit down now, but the time will come 
when you will hear me." 

How little they supposed that the defeated Jew 
w^ould become their Prime Minister, and that they 
would indeed " hear him " and be governed by him ! 

Disraeli bore the defeat calmly. He wrote to his 
" Dearest," his sister : " I state at once that my debut 
was a failure — not by my breaking down, or incompe- 
tency on my part, but from the physical power of my 
adversaries. I can give you no idea how bitter, how 
factious, how unfair, they were. It was like my first 
debut at Aylesbury, and perhaps in that sense may be 
auspicious of ultimate triumph in the same scene. I 
fought through all with undaunted pluck and unruffled 
temper. . . . Yours, D., in very good spirits." 

Sliiel, though an Irish leader, would not join the 
clubs in their delight in Disraeli's failure. '' I tell 
you this," he said : " if ever the spirit of oratory was 
in a man, it is that man. Nothing can prevent him 
from* being one of the first speakers of the House of 
Commons." 

He said to Disraeli afterwards, at dinner at Bulwer's : 
"Now get rid of your genius for a session. Speak 
often, for you must not show yourself cowed, but speak 
shortly. Be very quiet, try to be dull, only argue and 
reason imperfectly. Astonish them by speaking on 
subjects of detail. Quote figures, dates, calculations, 
and in a short time the House will sigh for the wit 
and eloquence which they all know are in you; they 
will encourage you to pour them forth, and then you 
will have the ear of the House, and be a favorite." 

A week later he spoke on the Copyright Bill, and was 



336 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

listened to. All supposed he would allude to his former 
treatment, but he did not speak of it. From that time 
on, he never wanted for a respectful audience. 

On July 12, 1839, Disraeli made an able speech on 
the Chartist Petition, presented to Parliament by Mr. 
Attwood, member for Birmingham, and demanding man- 
hood suffrage, vote by ballot, electoral districts, annual 
Parliaments, and payment of members ; the latter, so 
that those who were not rich might be able to sit in the 
House and still provide support for their families. 

The petition had more than a million signatures, 
and was brought into the House on a special machine, 
necessary for carrying such a mass of paper. Many 
who signed believed that a People's Charter would 
bring about better times, better food and wages. At 
least the poor and the workingmen wished to be repre- 
sented, and knew that their cause was just. Educated 
and prominent men were also engaged in the reform. 

Legislators are not always wise in their generation, 
and are sometimes obliged to give place to those who 
are willing to think about the wrongs of a people. 
They paid no attention to the petition, and soon riots 
and bloodshed resulted. The leaders of the Chartists 
were imprisoned and treated with great severity. 

Lord John Eussell, then War Secretary, asked for an 
increase of the police. Disraeli was one of a minority 
of five who dared to oppose the request. He defended 
those who were severely treated, and was called, in 
consequence, " an advocate of riot and disorder." He 
did not accept in full the provisions of the charter, but 
he had great sympathy with the Chartists. Two years 
later, angered at the treatment which they had received 
from the Whigs, the Chartists assisted in the downfall 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 337 

of the Melbourne Ministry. Disraeli was able to show 
later by his novel "Sybil," and the Eeform Bill of 1867, 
that his expressions of sympathy were sincere. 

This year, 1839, brought a great change in Disraeli's 
life. Mr. Wynclham Lewis died March 14, 1838, and 
August 28 of the year following Mr. Disraeli married 
his widow. She was not beautiful, but was extremely 
intelligent, and was his senior by nearly fifteen years, 
he thirty-five and she nearly fifty. She had no children. 
She was the owner of a home at Grosvenor Gate, with a 
life income of several thousand pounds. Mr. Disraeli's 
liabilities were at once cancelled, and for the first time 
in his life he must have felt himself free to work, to 
write, to live, without the thraldom of debt. 

Mr. Froude says : " She was a heroine, if ever woman 
deserved the name. She devoted herself to Disraeli 
with a completeness which left no room in her mind for 
any other thought. As to him, he said that he would 
never marry for love. But if love, in the common 
sense of the word, did not exist between these two, 
there was an affection which stood the trials of thirty 
years, and deepened only as they both declined into age. 

" She was his helpmate, his confidante, his adviser : 
from the first, he felt the extent of his obligations to 
her ; but the sense of obligation, if at first felt as a duty, 
became a bond of friendship perpetually renewed. The 
hours spent with his wife in retirement were the hap- 
piest that he knew. In defeat or victory he hurried 
home from the House of Commons to share his vexation 
or his triumph with his companion, who never believed 
that he could fail. The moment in his whole life which 
perhaps gave him greatest delight, was that at which he 
was able to decorate her with a peerage." 



338 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

He was proud as well as grateful for her affection. 
He had said in " Vivian Grey," " To be loved by any 
woman is flattering to the feelings of every man, no 
matter how deeply he may have quaffed the bitter 
goblet of worldly knowledge." 

He dedicated "Sybil" to her, six years after their 
marriage, in these words : " I would inscribe this work 
to one whose noble spirit and gentle nature ever prompt 
her to sympathize with the suffering; to one whose sweet 
voice has often encouraged, and whose taste and judg- 
ment have ever guided its pages j the most severe of 
critics, but a perfect wife." 

" A party of young men once ventured," says Froude, 
" a foolish jest or two at Mrs. Disraeli's age and appear- 
ance, and rallied him on the motives of his marriage. 
^ Gentlemen,' said Disraeli, as he rose and left the room, 
^do none of you know what gratitude means?' This 
was the only known instance in which he ever spoke 
with genuine anger." 

Disraeli did not buy his beautiful country home, 
Hughenden, near Bradenham, till 1848. " Here," says 
T. E. Kebbel, '' Lady Beaconsfield, during her lifetime, 
was the brightest of hostesses ; and to walk with her 
in the surrounding woods, and hear her discourse about 
her husband — it is needless to say her favorite topic — 
was a treat not soon to be forgotten. She was particu- 
larly fond of telling how, after a capital division in the 
House of Commons in 1867, he refused an invitation to 
supper at the Carlton, that he might carry the good 
news to Grosvenor Gate without delay. ' Dizzy came 
home to me,' she used to say with a triumphant air. 

" His domestic life, there is every reason to suppose, 
was one of unclouded happiness, and due in great part 



THE EAEL OF BEACONSFIELD. 339 

to Lady Beaconsfield's exertions of general cheerful- 
ness." 

The story of her self-control has been often told. 
Going with her husband to the House of Commons, as 
was her custom, as she entered the carriage the door 
shut upon her fingers, holding and nearly crushing them. 
Disraeli was deep in thought over a speech to be made. 
Without uttering a sound, she allowed her fingers to 
remain in the door till they arrived ; and she entered the 
ladies' gallery, and made no mention of the dreadful 
pain, till the speech was over, and they were on their 
Avay home. 

Disraeli was never afraid or ashamed to praise his 
wife. When he became Lord Eector of a great univer- 
sity, he told the students, that if he had risen high in 
the councils of the nation, he had Mrs. Disraeli to thank 
for it. He never hesitated to have it known that she 
read over his speeches with him, and counselled him on 
all important political matters. Strong men are never 
afraid to be advised or guided by a woman. 

Disraeli rarely appeared in society without his wife. 
When she had grown old to the world, she never seemed 
to have grown old to him. They were inseparable, and 
satisfied in each other's companionship. 

Mr. Gladstone said, after Disraeli died : " There was 
another feeling, lying nearer to the very centre of his 
existence, which, though a domestic feeling, may now be 
referred to without indelicacy. I mean his profound, 
devoted, tender, and grateful affection for his wife, 
which, if, as may be the case, it deprived him of the 
honor of public obsequies, has, nevertheless, left for him 
a more permanent title as one who knew, amid the calls 
and temptations of political life, what was due to the 



340 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

sanctity and strength of the domestic affections, and 
made him, in that respect, an example to the country in 
which he lived." 

" They was like a pair of turtle-doves, they was," said 
the head gardener to a visitor at Hughenden. " They 
was like that to the last day of their lives They would 
spend whole days out here together in the summer-time ; 
and it was her delight to take him to see things which 
she had done to please him unbeknown. If she thought 
he'd like to. have a clearer view of the meadows, she'd 
have openings cut in the woods. She used to tell me to 
do it on the quiet, and when it was all done she'd lead 
him to the spot. 

" Do you see that monnyment yonder on the hill ? 
Well, it's put up in memory of my lord's father, him 
that wrote the book ; and my lady did it all of her own 
accord. She had the plans made, and set the masons to 
work without sayin' a word to him about it ; and then 
she takes him out one fine afternoon, and says he, 
^ What's that ? ' — ' Let's go see,' says she, with a smile ; 
and when they got near it he stood and looked at her for 
a full minute without speakin' a word. I've heerd as 
how he cried, but not havin' been near enough to see it, 
I can't say. It was the finished monnyment to Isaac 
Disraeli, sir, fit for Westminster Abbey. She loved 
Isaac Disraeli's son like that." 

A writer in Temple Bar says : " Those who knew 
Mrs. Disraeli remember how every morning, when she 
had settled her household affairs with a quiet, domi- 
neering activity, she would sit down to glance through 
heaps of newspapers, reviews, and even blue-books, to 
spare her husband this fatigue. At his ten-o'clock 
breakfast he heard from her all the news of the day, 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 341 

got the pith of the leaders from the Times, was told 
of everything printed in his favor, and often received a 
useful budget of facts, statistics, and anecdotes, bearing 
upon speeches which he was going to deliver. 

^' From the time of his marriage a great change came 
over Disraeli. The fervid self-assertedness of his bache- 
lor days was put off ; the florid imperfections of his 
dress were corrected ; he became less anxious to shine 
than to please, less careful to convince than to amuse. 
His sure helpmate scored for him, so to say, marking 
down all the points he "made, watching the effects of his 
conversational shots, and reporting everything faithfully 
to him, so that he could never feel depressed under a 
sense of diminishing prowess." 

However cynical Disraeli might have been in some 
matters, he was never cynical about the influence of 
woman, or the beauty of womanhood. " Few great men 
have flourished," he says in " Henrietta Temple," "who, 
were they candid, would not acknowledge the vast ad- 
vantages they have experienced in the earlier years of 
their career from the spirit and sympathy of woman. 
. . . How many an official portfolio would never have 
been carried, had it not been for her sanguine spirit and 
assiduous love ! 

" How many a depressed and despairing advocate has 
clutched the Great Seal, and taken his precedence before 
princes, borne onward by the breeze of her inspiring 
hope, and illumined by the sunshine of her prophetic 
smile ! A female friend, amiable, clever, and devoted, 
is a possession more valuable than parks and palaces ; 
and, without such a muse, few men can succeed in life, 
none be content." 

In " Lothair," Disraeli makes the Princess of Tivoli 



342 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

say, in speaking of Theodora : " The power . of the 
passions, the force of the will, the creative energy of 
the imagination, — these make life, and reveal to us a 
world of which the millions are entirely ignorant. You 
have been fortunate in your youth to have become 
acquainted with a great woman. It develops all a man's 
powers, and gives him a thousand talents. 

" It is the spirit of man that says, ' I will be great ; ' 
but it is the sympathy of woman that usually makes 
him so.'' 

Of " Coningsby," he says : " No clever and refined 
woman, with her quick perception, and nice criticism 
that never offends our self-love, had ever given him that 
education that is more precious than universities. The 
mild suggestions of a sister, the gentle raillery of some 
laughing cousin, are also advantages not always appre- 
ciated at the time, but which boys, when they have 
become men, often think over with gratitude, and a little 
remorse at the ungracious spirit in which they were 
received." 

In " Coningsby," also, Disraeli gives a picture of his 
own married life : " The lot most precious to man, and 
which a beneficent Providence has made not the least 
common — to find in another heart a perfect and pro- 
found sympathy, to unite his existence with one who 
could share all his joys, soften all his sorrows, aid him 
in all his projects, respond to all his fancies, counsel 
him in his cares and support him in his perils, make 
life charming by her charms, interesting by her intelli- 
gence, and sweet by the vigilant variety of her tender- 
ness — to find your life blessed by such an influence, 
and to feel that your influence can bless such a life ; the 
lot the most divine of divine gifts, so perfect that 
power and even fame can never rival its delights." 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD, 343 

After his marriage, Disraeli and his wife spent two 
months in travel in Germany, and then he came back to 
his labors in the House of Commons. In 1841, under 
Sir Robert Peel as Prime Minister, Disraeli was returned 
for Shrewsbury. The Free Trade doctrines were being 
advocated by Bright and Cobden. Peel evidently was 
weakening from his Protectionist professions. Disraeli, 
a Protectionist, and his political follower, began to lose 
confidence in his leader. 

They differed on the Irish question. Peel was for 
coercion bills ; and Disraeli contended that " a starving 
population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church " 
being the causes of the disaffection, coercion would not 
remedy it. He soon became the head of a small party 
of younger Tory members, who were called Young 
Englanders. 

These hoped " to rekindle that attachment to the 
throne, the Church, and the landed proprietors of the 
kingdom, which, though the flame burned low, was yet 
far from being extinct." 

Disraeli, believing in the necessity and the wisdom of 
a landed aristocracy, still urged that that aristocracy 
do its whole duty, be distinguished for public and private 
virtues, and that the Church revive itself to its noble 
position of spiritual leadership. "The Church," he 
said, " was in theory, and once it had been in practice, 
the spiritual and intellectual trainer of the people. The 
privileges of the multitude and the prerogative of the 
sovereign had grown up together, and together they had 
waned. Under the plea of Liberalism, all the institu- 
tions which were the bulwark of the multitude had 
been sapped and weakened, and nothing had been sub- 
stituted for them." Evidently the man who began 



344 THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

political life as a Eadical was now a clearly defined 
Tory. 

With the hope of impressing the views of the Young 
Englanders upon the people^ '^Coningsby " and '' Sybil" 
were written. 

" Coningsby ; or, The New Generation," was pub- 
lished in 1844. Three editions were sold in three 
months in England. It was largely circulated through- 
out Europe, and in a short time fifty thousand copies 
were sold in the United States. 

" The main purpose of its writer," says the preface, 
"was to vindicate the just claims of the Tory party to 
be the popular political confederation of the country. 
... In considering the Tory scheme, the author recog- 
nized in the Church the most powerful agent in the 
previous development of England, and the most efficient 
means of that renovation of the national spirit at which 
he aimed. ... 

" In vindicating the sovereign right of the Church 
of Christ to be the perpetual regenerator of man, the 
writer thought the time had arrived when some attempt 
should be made to do justice to the race which founded 
Christianity." 

In speaking of the Middle Ages, when the Jews were 
looked upon as an accursed race, he says, — 

"No one paused to reflect that Christianity was 
founded by the Jews ; that its Divine Author, in his 
human capacity, was a descendant of King David ; . . . 
that the apostles and the evangelists, whose names men 
daily invoked, and whose volumes they embrace with 
reverence, were all Jews. . . . And that a Jew was the 
founder of the Christian Churches of Asia." These 
views are developed further still in " Tancred." Con- 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 345 

ingsby, the hero of the novel, and one of the aristocracy, 
grandson of Lord Monmouth, is educated at Eton, saves 
the life of his schoolmate, Oswald Millbank, the son of 
a mill-owner in Lancashire, is noble and generous, and 
" wishes to be a great man." 

He meets Sidonia, a rich Jew, — not unlike Disraeli, 
— and tells him his wish for eminence. 

*' Mature your mind with great thoughts," replies 
Sidonia. " To believe in the heroic makes heroes. . . . 
The age does not believe in great men, because it does 
not possess any. The Spirit of the Age is the very 
thing that a great man changes," says Sidonia. 

" What is an individual against a vast public opinion ? " 
exclaims Coningsby. 

"Divine," says Sidonia. 

Sidonia becomes a power with the young man. " All 
of us encounter," says Disraeli, " at least once in our 
life, some individual who utters words that make us 
think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles : 
who condense in a sentence the secrets of life ; who blurt 
out an aphorism that forms a character or illustrates an 
existence. A great thing is a great book ; but greater 
than all is the talk of a great man ! . . . A great man is 
one who affects the mind of his generation, whether he 
be a monk in a cloister, agitating Christendom, or a 
monarch crossing the Granicus, and giving a new charac- 
ter to the pagan world." 

Under such teaching, Coningsby is prepared to edu- 
cate the '^ new generation." He loves Edith Millbank, 
and is finally able to overcome the aversion of the rich 
mill-owner for the conceited, and, to his view, nearly 
useless aristocracy, and marries her. Coningsby becomes 
rich through the gift of a young woman who loves him. 



346 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

Flora Villebecque, the natural daughter of the profligate 
Lord Monmouth. 

" Sybil ; or, The Two Nations," published in 1845, is 
a study of the rich and the poor, especially the latter. 

'' Two nations ; between whom there is no intercourse 
and no sympathy ; who are as ignorant of each other's 
habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers 
in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets ; 
who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a 
different food, are ordered by different manners, and are 
not governed by the same laws." 

Disraeli had personally visited the manufacturing 
towns and the poor elsewhere, and, like the noble Lord 
Shaftesbury, had seen for himself the misery of the 
struggling millions. Sybil, a lovely woman, is one of 
Disraeli's most beautiful creations, just as Theodora in 
" Lothair," is a character as far removed as possible from 
the usual type in an English novel. Disraeli had no 
fear in describing the leader of the English poor, and 
the leader of the Italians in their struggles for liberty, 
as women. Even death on battle-fields did not spoil 
their gentleness of character. The women of the 
world have the Prime Minister of England to thank for 
many pictures of a strong and noble womanhood — not 
helpless or superficial, but, like his own wife, intel- 
lectual, and able companions in the daily struggle. 

Lord Marney and Lord Mowbray in the book are 
harsh landlords and mill-owners, who think " a peasant 
can rear a family on eight shillings a week." Their 
indifference as to the condition of their work-people 
amounts to brutality. Poor little waifs like "Devils- 
dust" are the result. "About a fortnight after his 
mother had introduced him to the world, she returned 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELI). 347 

to her factory, and put lier infant out to nurse — that 
is to say, paid threepence a week to an old woman, who 
takes charge of these newborn babes for the day, and 
gives them back at night to their mothers, as they hur- 
riedly return from the scene of their labor to the dungeon 
or the den which is still by courtesy called ' home.' The 
expense is not great : laudanum and treacle, administered 
in the shape of some popular elixir, affords these inno- 
cents a brief taste of the sweets of existence, and, keep- 
ing them quiet, prepares them for the silence of their 
impending grave. . . . 

" At two years of age, his mother being lost sight of 
and the weekly payment having ceased, he was sent out 
in the street to ' play,' in order to be run over. Even 
this expedient failed. The youngest and the feeblest of 
the band of victims. Juggernaut spared him to Moloch. 
All his companions were disposed of. Three months 
^ play ' in the streets got rid of this tender company, — 
shoeljcss, half-naked, and uncombed, — whose age varied 
from two to five years. Some were crushed, some were 
lost, some caught cold and fevers, crept back to their 
garret or their cellars, were dosed with Godfrey's cor- 
dial, and died in peace. 

" The nameless one would not disappear. He always 
got out of the way of the carts and horses. They gave 
him no food : he forao:ed for himself, and shared with 
the dogs the garbage of the streets. But still he lived ; 
stunted and pale, he defied even the fatal fever which 
was the only habitant of his cellar that never quitted it. 
And, slumbering at night on a bed of mouldering straw, 
his only protection against the plashy surface of his den, 
with a dungheap at his head, and a cesspool at his feet, 
he still clung to the only roof which shielded him from 
the tempest. ... 



348 TUE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD, 

"All the children gradually sickened except himself; 
and one night when he returned home he found the old 
woman herself dead, and surrounded only by corpses. 
The child before this had slept on the same bed of straw 
with a corpse, but then there were also breathing beings 
for his companions. A night passed only with corpses 
seemed to him in itself a kind of death. He stole out of 
the cellar, quitted the quarter of pestilence, and, after 
much wandering, lay down near the door of a factory. 
Fortune had guided him. . . . 

" A child was wanting in the Wadding Hole, a place 
for the manufacture of waste and damaged cotton, the 
refuse of the mills, which is here worked up into counter- 
panes and coverlets. The nameless one was preferred to 
the vacant post, received even a salary ; more than that, 
a name, for, as he had none, he w^as christened on the 
spot, Devilsdust." 

Sybil is the daughter of a workingman, Walter Gerard, 
who joins with others in organizing trades-unions for 
the protection of labor. At last the laborers become 
incensed a.t the low wages, indifference, and lectures " on 
their improved condition,'' by their employers. The 
laborers knew that with the spread of intelligence their 
needs for decent living were greater ; that the capitalist 
was building a fine home while wages were lowered ; 
that " supply and demand " was idle talk to the starv- 
ing in a Christian civilization where men were called 
" brothers." 

Egremont, the younger brother of Lord Marney, loves 
Sybil for her high character, and tries to assure her that 
" the increased knowledge of themselves will teach the 
educated their social duties. There is a dayspring in 
the history of this nation, which, perhaps, those only who 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 349 

are on the mountain-tops can as yet recognize. You 
deem you are in the darkness, and I see a dawn." 

Disraeli did indeed hope that "Darkest England" 
would be aroused ; that her rich would not waste in 
luxury what would make the poor happy ; that capital 
would be mindful of labor, and not think that duties 
were ended when wages were paid. But he died before 
the " dawn " had come Avhich his hero prophesied. 

The castle of Lord Mowbray in the novel is sacked 
and burned by the laborers, while Lord Marney and the 
Chartist agitators, Gerard and Morley, are killed in the 
conflict. 

Disraeli writes his sister, on May-day, 1845 : " • Sybil ^ 
was finished yesterday. I thought it never would be ; 
the printers were on my heels, and have been for the 
last month. ... I have never been through such a four 
months, and hope never again. What with the House 
of Commons, which was itself quite enough for a man, 
and writing six hundred pages, I thought sometimes my 
head must turn." 

England had been stirred profoundly by the Eree 
Trade contest. Sir Eobert Peel had no antagonist like 
the Protectionist, Disraeli. He felt that Peel had 
betrayed his party by going over to the Free Traders. 
His satire was withering. 

"Eor myself," said Disraeli, "I care not what may be 
the result. Dissolve, if you pler.se, the Parliament you 
have betrayed, and appeal to the people, who, I believe, 
mistrust you. For me there remains this, at least, the 
opportunity of expressing thus publicly my belief that 
a Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy." 

Disraeli accused Peel of having stolen the Liberal 
policy. " The right honorable gentleman," he said, " had 



350 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

caught tlie Whigs bathing, and had walked away with 
their clothes." 

Disraeli wrote his sister that "Peel was stunned and 
stupefied, lost his head, and vacillating between silence 
and spleen, spoke much and weakly. Never was a 
greater failure ! Assuring me that I had not hurt his 
feelings, that he would never reciprocate personalities 
again, having no venom, etc., etc." 

Disraeli had advised the Irish not to trust Peel, 
" whose bleak shade had fallen on the sunshine of their 
hopes for a quarter of a century." 

Cobden's idea that the rest of mankind would follow 
the example of England in opening their ports to the 
world, was scouted by Disraeli as absurd. He said, on 
the third reading of the bill for the Kepeal of the Corn 
Laws : " It may be vain now in the midnight of their 
intoxication to tell them that there will be an awakening 
of bitterness. It may be idle now in the spring-tide of 
their economic frenzy, to warn them that there may be 
an ebb of trouble. But the dark and inevitable hour 
will arrive. Then when their spirit is softened by mis- 
fortune, they will recur to those principles which made 
England great, and which, in our belief, alone can keep 
England great. 

" Then, too, perhaps, they may remember, not with 
unkindness, those who, betrayed and deserted, were 
neither ashamed nor afraid to struggle for the ' good old 
cause,' the cause with which are associated principles the 
most popular, sentiments the most entirely national, the 
cause of labor, the cause of the people, the cause of 
England." 

Peel's administration fell soon after, and Disraeli, a 
member of the despised Jewish race, became the head of 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 351 

the Opposition. For twenty -five years he led his party in 
the House of Commons, being three times Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. " Any proposals which he considered good," 
says Mr. Froude, " he helped forward with earnestness 
and ability — proposals for shortening the hours of labor, 
for the protection of children in the factories, for the 
improvement of the dwelling-houses of the poor. He 
may be said to have brought the Jews into Parliament a 
quarter of a century before they would otherwise have 
been admitted there, for the Conservatives themselves 
would probably have opposed their admission to the end." 

The Bill for the Admission of Jews to Parliament was 
offered in 1830, and failed. In 1833 it passed the House 
of Commons, and was rejected in the House of Lords by 
fifty votes. Again and again it was defeated. In 1847 
Baron Lionel Rothschild was elected as one of the mem- 
bers for the City of London. For four sessions he sat as 
a stranger, and then he presented himself at the table of 
the House, and demanded to be sworn. He was sworn 
on the Old Testament, but omitted the words " on the 
true faith of a (Christian," in the Oath of Abjuration. 
He did not contest the matter further, but sat like any 
other stranger. Finall}^, in 1858, after twenty-eight years 
of discussion, Jews were admitted to Parliament by a bill 
enabling either House by resolution to modify its oath. 

During the American Civil War, though Disraeli be- 
lieved, with many others, that the North would not 
succeed, he advised non-interference, and carried his 
party with him. 

In the midst of his busy life, he wrote his novel 
"Tancred" in 1847, and his "Life of Lord George 
Bentinck" in 1852. "Tancred, or the New Crusade," 
was his favorite. Bentinck was a leader of the Pro- 



352 THE EABL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

tectionists against Peel, till his sudden death ; and though 
this Life was a labor of love for Disraeli, the writing of 
the book was fatiguing. 

He writes his sister, Sept. 10, 1850 : " Two immense 
chests of George Bentinck's papers from the Duke of 
Portland — materials for a memoir, long contemplated." 
In October he writes : " I am getting on pretty well with 
my work, though tired of this life of everlasting labor. 
This is a beautiful autumn, and the tints are very fine 
and various, though the russet beech predominates. 
These colors, however, are no compensation for the loss 
of long days. I get up at seven, but they are fearfully 
short, and I cannot, as you know, work at night." 

Dec. 7, 1851, he writes : " I finished the last line of 
the last chapter last night, and never in my life felt 
more relieved, not having had a moment's ease the whole 
autumn." 

Isaac Disraeli had died in 1848, and with the portion 
of money which came to Benjamin, he was enabled to 
purchase the manor of Hughenden, near his boyhood's 
home, Bradenham. Mrs. Disraeli raised in the park a 
handsome monument to her husband's father, and his 
son republished his father's books, prefixing an interest- 
ing biography of the retiring student. 

Hughenden, with its two thousand acres, its woods 
and walks, and white manor-house, is an attractive 
place. "The abundance of timber," says an English 
writer, "has given the landscape gardener splendid 
material to work upon. Here he has cleared a glade and 
there a little amphitheatre, and at needful distances for 
effect he has varied the greens and browns of the grass 
and the trees with patches of all the colors in which 
God has painted the flowers of the field." 



THR EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 353 

Within, "the pictures begin at the hall door. They 
line the staircase walls, they overflow into every cham- 
ber and ante-chamber, and there is hardly one of them 
that is not a personal memento. . . . Here in the low- 
ceiled entry is Edward Lytton Bulwer in the day of his 
dandyism, a picture as carefully wrought out by the 
painter, in boots and cuffs and collar as in the fine brow 
above them. 

" Here is Lyndhurst, the great Tory Lord Chancellor. 
. . . This portrait was painted by the young Disraeli's 
idol, D'Orsay : and opposite to it hangs the effigy of the 
artist and the idol himself — the Crichton of his time, 
the best dresser, the brightest wit, the most accom- 
plished swordsman, painter, equestrian, and general 
highflyer, perhaps ever seen in London society, and 
withal, as tradition assures us, the handsomest man, not 
only of a season, but of an epoch. ... 

" One chief secret of Disraeli's early impecuniosity is 
now known ; he gave up the ready money left him by 
his father, some thousands of pounds, to help to pay 
D'Orsay's debts. It was but a drop in that ocean of 
liability, but it helped his hero through one bad quarter 
of an hour, and with that the devotee was content. 
Another canvas only separates D'Orsay from the Count- 
ess of Blessington — a brunette radiant with youthful 
beauty." 

In the library, " the light is abundant, and it falls as 
often on brilliant hangings as on sober bindings. . . . 
Eich Oriental yellows predominate in the decorations, 
but there is an Oriental harmony in the fittings of the 
apartment, taken as a whole. The bookbinder's lines 
of gold on the volumes, here and there, catch up and 
carry out the color, as an artist would say, from one end 



354 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELB. 

of the roo,m to the other, and the place is filled with 
bits of bric-a-brac which serve the same end. . . . Pre- 
sentation books lie about on the tables. One of them, 
a trophy from Berlin, is a beautifully printed and 
beautifully bound edition of the Psalms in German, 
weighing several pounds. A slip of paper thrust be- 
tween the leaves says that it is from an admirer — there 
is no other clew to the giver's name. . . . 

"The drawing-room is very gorgeous in its glow of 
gold and yellow satin. The parqueted floor is in the 
French style. French, too, in taste, is the abundance 
of figure-subjects in old china, though these are mostly 
of Dresden ware. This might be called the Queen's 
room, for the Queen sat in it on her memorable visit 
to her favorite minister, — a visit of a couple of hours, 
but it made Russia and Germany understand his hold 
on power, and it will be remembered in this rural 
neighborhood for ten times as many years. [The Queen 
and Beatrice each planted a fir tree at Hughenden.] 

"This room abounds with evidences of her royal 
favor to the man who has made her something more than 
a queen, and Avhose enemies, indeed, accuse him of 
making her an empress in England as well as in India 
by liberating her from the critical control of Parliament, 
and accepting her will as the nation's law. 

"In the place of honor among the pictures hangs the 
portrait of Her Majesty, painted by command. On the 
table lies a ponderously bound copy of Theodore Martin's 
'Faust,' with the inscription on the fly-leaf in a hand- 
writing beautifully clear and bold : ' To Lord Beacons- 
field, with many happy returns of the season, from 
Victoria Reg. and I. [Regina et Imperatrix], Christmas 
Eve, 1876.'" 



THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELD. 355 

Disraeli was deeply attached to Hughenden. He was 
especially fond of birds, trees, and flowers. " He was 
sincerely grieved," says Kebbel, "when a wintry gale 
blew down a favorite ash ; and once, when a half-witted 
peasant, who was allowed to wander about the park, 
showed him a dead bird which he had picked up, he 
said, ' Take it away, I cannot bear the sight of it.' " 

He had a dog of which he was very fond, a Persian 
cat, and handsome peacocks, which the Queen cared for 
after his death. He used if possible to finish his official 
business at four o'clock, that he might walk or drive 
before dinner. He was a favorite among his cottagers, 
and often chatted with them over their afternoon tea. 

In 1851, about the time of the purchase of Hughenden, 
Disraeli had a singular experience. He received a 
letter from a Mrs. Brydges Willyams, living at Torquay, 
which expressed admiration, and desired advice on some 
business matters. Not knowing the person, he tore it 
up.— Later, he received another letter, asking to meet 
him. He showed it to Mrs. Disraeli, and tore it up. A 
third time she wrote, and appointed a meeting in the 
Great Exhibition building by the fountain. He showed 
this letter to two intimate friends, who advised him not 
to neglect the request. 

He went and found an aged woman, a Jewess, the 
heiress of a family of Spanish descent. Her husband 
had died over thirty years before. She handed Disraeli 
a paper which she begged him to examine at his leisure. 

He thrust it into his pocket, and thought no riiore 
aboiit it for weeks. Finally, when he recalled it, he 
opened the package, and found a thousand-pound note 
toward his election expenses, and the case about which 
Mrs. Willyams had sought advice. The case was at- 



356 THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

tended to, and the advice was sent with apologies for 
delay. 

An affectionate friendship resulted, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Disraeli visited Torquay each year. Every week roses 
were sent from Torquay to the Disraelis, and they in 
turn sent gifts. For twelve years an intimate corre- 
spondence was kept up ; and the letters have been pre- 
served, written by Disraeli when he had leisure, by his 
wife when he had not. 

He writes Mrs. Willyams from Hughenden, September 
2, 1862 : " I am quite myself again ; and as I have been 
drinking your magic beverage for a week, and intend to 
pursue it, you may fairly claim all the glory of my recov- 
ery, as a fairy cures a knight after a tournament or a 
battle. I have a great weakness for mutton broth, 
especially with that magical sprinkle which you did not 
forget. I shall call you in future, after an old legend 
and a modern poem, Hhe Lady of Shalott.' 

" I think the water of which it was made would have 
satisfied even you, for it was taken every day from our 
stream, which rises among the chalk hills, glitters in the 
sun over a very pretty cascade, then spreads and sparkles 
into a little lake in which is a natural island. 

" Since I wrote to you last, we have launched in the 
lake two most beautiful cygnets, to whom we have given 
the names of Hero and Leander. They are a source to 
lis of unceasing interest and amusement. They are very 
handsome and yqyj large, but as yet dove-colored. I can 
no longer write to you of Cabinet councils or Parlia- 
mentary struggles. Here I see nothing but trees or 
books, so you must not despise the news of my swans." 

At Mrs. Willyams's death, she left him her whole for- 
tune, 30,000 pounds sterling, with a wish that she might be 



THE EAEL OF BEACON SFIELB. 357 

laid beside him at Hughenden, a wish of course complied 
with. Rarely has a man been so worshipped by two 
women, as those two who now rest beside him in death, 
his wife and Mrs. Willyams. 

All these years Disraeli was doing his work in the 
House of Commons, making witty, sarcastic, and able 
speeches, showing himself skilled in his financial reports ; 
one of the two great masters who fought their duels of 
words before an admiring public, — the one a grand 
Liberal, — Gladstone ; the other a brilliant Tory. 

The country still clamored for reform in the franchise. 
Lord John Russell had tried a reform bill in 1852, and 
again in 1854, but the country was too much absorbed by 
the Crimean War abroad, to care for discontent at home. 
In 1859 Mr. Disraeli, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
introduced a bill, but was defeated on the second reading. 
In 1866 the Liberals, under Gladstone, then leader of the 
House of Commons, introduced a reform bill in a most 
eloquent speech. Mr. Bright supported hira. Mr. Robert 
Lowe, a Liberal, opposed, and, with his followers, was 
likened by Mr. Bright to David in the Cave of Adullam, 
when he called about him " every one that was in distress 
and every one that was discontented,'^ and became a leader 
over them. Hence the little third party were called 
" Adullamites." 

For eight nights the reform bill was debated in the 
House, with many brilliant and eloquent speeches. Mr. 
Gladstone jBnally saw that his bill was doomed. He said 
in closing a noble speech : "You cannot fight against the 
future. Time is on our side. The great social forces 
which move on in their might and majesty, and which 
the tumult of our debates does not for a moment impede 
or disturb, — those great social forces are against you; 



358 THE EABL OF UEACONSFIELD. 

they are marshalled on our side, and the banner which 
we now carry, though perhaps at this moment it may 
droop over our sinking heads, yet soon again will float 
in the eye of heaven, and it will be borne by the firm 
hands of the united people of the three kingdoms, per- 
haps not to an easy, but to a certain and a not distant 
victory." 

The bill was defeated; the Liberal ministry resigned, 
and Lord Derby became Prime Minister, with Disraeli 
again Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

The disfranchised of England now determined to make 
themselves heard by Parliament. Eeform leagues and 
unions were formed at once. Great meetings were held 
demanding the franchise for the working-people. Great 
processions passed up and down the principal thorough- 
fares of London, with determined faces and banners that 
could not be misunderstood. Reform or revolution was 
imminent. There was a riot in Hyde Park, and a few per- 
sons were stoned and injured, but usually the demands 
were made in dignified silence. 

Disraeli knew that his hour for action had come. He 
knew that the Tories were opposed to reform ; that he 
must " educate " them, as he said in a speech at a ban- 
quet given in his honor in Edinburgh : " I had to prepare 
the mind of the country, — to educate, if it be not too 
arrogant to use such a phrase, — to educate our party, 
which is a large party, and, of course, requires its atten- 
tion to be called to questions of this character with some 
pressure ; and I had to prepare the mind of Parliament 
and of the country in this question of reform." He 
could not " educate " three of his Cabinet, who resigned 
at once — Lord Salisbury, Secretary for India ; General 
Peel, Secretary for War ; and Lord Carnarvon, Colonial 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 359 

Secretary. England became intensely stirred by the 
debates. Carlyle thought the country would go to de- 
struction tlirough the broadened franchise, and wrote 
"Shooting Niagara." England, he thought, would go 
over the rapids, and perhaps disappear. 

One man knew at least that the people were in earnest 
in their demands, and that the Tories could not remain 
in power unless something decisive were done. True, he 
had blamed Peel for going against his party in the repeal 
of the Corn Laws. Mr. Disraeli had the unusual power 
to carry his party with him, willing or unwilling. 

After the most heated debates, in which he never 
lost his good nature, even though he often cut his adver- 
saries to the quick — Disraeli spoke on the Eeform Bill 
no less than three hundred and ten times — the Reform 
Bill passed August 15, 1867. It was virtually household 
suffrage. " It enfranchised in boroughs all male house- 
holds rated for the relief of the poor, and all lodgers 
resident for one year, and paying not less than ten 
pounds a year rent ; and in counties, persons of property 
of the clear annual value of five pounds, and occupiers 
of land or tenements paying twelve pounds a year." 

Without doubt Mr. Disraeli had gone farther than he 
had intended at first, though " Sybil " showed how 
plainly he was the friend of the workingman. He had 
some fears about universal suffrage, as he had had about 
free, trade. He said : " If you establish a democracy, you 
must in due season reap the fruits of a democracy. You 
will in due season have great impatience of the public 
burdens, combined in due season with great increase of 
the public expenditure. You will in due season have 
wars entered upon from passion and not from reason ; 
and you will in due season submit to peace ignomini- 



360 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD, 

ously sought and igiiorantly obtained, which will diminish 
your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. 
You will, in due season, with a democracy, find that your 
property is less valuable, and that your freedom is less 
complete. 

" I doubt not, when there has been realized a sufficient 
quantity of disaffection and dismay, the good sense of 
this country will come to the rally, and that you will 
obtain some remedy for your grievances, and some 
redress for your wrongs, by the process through which 
alone it can be obtained; by that process which may 
make you-r property more secure, but which will not 
render your liberty more eminent." 

The Prime Minister, Lord Derby, pathetically ex- 
claimed that they were "taking a leap in the dark; ''and 
Mr. Lowe, obliged to accept the inevitable, now that 
people '* who lived in those small houses " were enfran- 
chised, said, " We must now, at least, educate our new 
masters." Lord Derby soon retired on account of ill 
health, and the leader of his party, the Jew who had 
fought his way against prejudice, debts, and lack of 
social position,- accepted the highest honor which the 
Queen of England has to offer, that of Prime Minister. 
Although he had been called " the Red Indian of debate," 
and an adventurer, he had won his position by his ability 
and his determination. He went down to Parliament 
wildly cheered by the crowds along the streets, in Palace 
Yard, and in the House itself. The world admires cour- 
age, and is glad when success is honorably won. How 
proud the devoted wife must have been ! How the heart 
of Benjamin Disraeli must have rejoiced at sixty-four, to 
have won the coveted prize ! Doubtless he recalled the 
day when thirty years before he had exclaimed before a 



THE EAEL OF BEACON SFIELB. 361 

jeering, shouting crowd in the House of Commons : " I 
have begun several things, many times — and have often 
succeeded at last. Ay, sir, I will sit down now, but the 
time will come when you will hear me." And the time 
had come. 

Mr. Disraeli did not long retain his position, as in a 
few months the government was defeated by the Liber- 
als under Gladstone, in the disestablishment of the Irish 
Church. Disraeli opposed this measure, believing that 
it was the entering wedge, and that the abolition of the 
State Church in England and Scotland would follow. 
He declared that " the sound union between Church and 
State was the chief means of our civilization and the 
sole guarantee of religious liberty.'' Of course the Non- 
conformists and the Papists Avere against him. The 
former had no sympathy with a Church established by 
law and supported by the State ; the latter had no sym- 
pathy with a Protestant Church established by law in a 
Koman Catholic country. 

On leaving office at the close of 1868, the Queen wished 
to give Disraeli a title, but while declining for himself, 
he was glad to accept the honor for Mrs. Disraeli, who 
became Viscountess Beaconsfield. She died four years 
later, December 15, 1872, and was buried at Hughenden. 

Having more leisure, now that he was out of office, 
Disraeli wrote "Lothair," probably his greatest novel, 
which was published in 1870. This, like all his other 
books, is written with a purpose. Lothair, an exceedingly 
rich nobleman, is desired by the Church of Rome as a con- 
vert, and to this end he is courted by clever monsignors 
and charming Avomen. He is saved to Protestantism 
by Theodora, an Italian, married to an American. She 
is one of the leaders in the struggles of Italy, and 



362 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELl). 

receives an ideal homage from Lothair. She is a remark- 
able woman, and is finely drawn by Disraeli. 

Wounded on the field of battle near Eome, and lying 
on her death-bed, she says to Lothair, " It is the last 
time I shall speak to you, and I wish that we should be 
alone. There is something much on my mind at this 
moment, and you can relieve it. ... I know your life, 
for you have told it me, and you are true. I know 
your nature ; it is gentle and brave, but perhaps too sus- 
ceptible. I wished it to be susceptible only of the great 
and good. Mark me ! I have a vague but strong con- 
viction that there will be another and a more powerful 
attempt to gain you to the Church of Rome. If I have 
ever been to you, as you have sometimes said, an object 
of kind thoughts, — if not a fortunate, at least a faith- 
ful friend, — promise me now, at this hour of trial, 
with all the solemnity that becomes the moment, that 
you will never enter the communion." 

" I promise," said Lothair. 

"And now," she said, "embrace me, for I wish that 
your spirit should be upon me as mine departs." 

Lothair is afterwards wounded in battle, and left for 
dead on the field. He is taken to a hospital, and again 
his Eomish friends surround and influence him. Dis- 
turbed in mind, but convalescing in body, he strays out 
in the moonlight, and finds himself in the Coliseum. 

"He sat himself down on a block of stone in that 
sublime and desolate arena, and asked himself the secret 
spell of this Eome that had already so agitated his young 
life, and probably was about critically to affect it. 
Theodora lived for Eome and died for Eome. ... 

" Was it a breeze in a breezeless night that was sigh- 
ing amid these ruins ? A pine-tree moved its head on 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 363 

a broken arch, and there was a stir among the plants 
that hung on the ancient walls. It was a breeze in a 
breezeless night that was sighing amid the ruins. . . . 

" He was aroused from his revery by the indefinite 
sense of some change having occurred, which often dis- 
turbs and terminates one's brooding thoughts. And, 
looking round, he felt, he saw, he was no longer alone. 
The moonbeams fell upon a figure that was observing 
him from the crag of ruin that was near, and, as the 
light clustered and gathered round the form, it became 
every moment more definite and distinct. . . . 

" ' Lothair,' said a deep sweet voice that never could 
be forgotten. 

" ^ I am here,' he at last replied. 

" ^ Eemember ! ' and she threw upon him that glance 
at once serene and solemn, that had been her last, and 
was impressed indelibly upon his heart of hearts. 

"Kow he could spring forward, and throw himself 
at her feet ; but, alas ! as he reached her, the figure 
melted into the moonlight, and she was gone; — that 
divine Theodora, who, let us hope, returned at last to 
those Elysian fields she so well deserved.'' 

The spell was broken, and he remained ever after true 
to his Protestant faith. 

"Lothair" had an immense sale. A single firm in 
America sold twenty -five thousand copies during the first 
month, and seven editions appeared in a few weeks. 
It was soon translated into almost all languages. Dis- 
raeli himself said that it had been " more extensively 
read both by the people of the United Kingdom and 
the United States, than any work that has appeared in 
the last half-century." 

Disraeli writes, says Froude, " as a man of the world, 



364 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

with perfect mastery of liis material, without a taint of 
ill-nature ; with a frank perception of the many and 
great excellences of the patrician families, of the charm 
and spirit of the high-born matrons and girls, of the 
noble capabilities of their fathers and brothers, paralyzed 
by the enchantment which condemns them to useless- 
ness. They stand on the canvas like the heroes and 
heroines of Vandyck; yet the sense never leaves us 
that they are but flowers of the hot-house, artificially 
forced into splendor, with no root in outer nature, and, 
therefore, of no continuance." This patrician society, at 
the time the book was written, "was then in its most 
brilliant period, like the full bloom of a flower which 
opens fully only to fade." 

In 1874 Disraeli again became Prime Minister, the 
Liberals being defeated on the Irish University Bill. 
He had already been chosen Lord Eector of the Univer- 
sity of Glasgow. 

He was then nearly seventy years of age. Por six 
years he governed the country much as Palmerston had 
done, with the same popular and absolute sway. He 
gave much thought to domestic interests. Among the 
measures passed through his influence were the Factory 
Acts, Mercantile Shipping Act, Artisans' Dwellings Act, 
and the like. He made some enemies by his support of 
the Public Worship Regulation Act, which gave to the 
bishops the power to prohibit practices which they con- 
sidered improper. It was in the interests of the Anti- 
Ritualists, and has not been productive of great results. 

In 1876, through Disraeli's influence, the Royal Titles 
Act was passed, enabling the Queen to assume the title 
of Empress of India. It met with decided opposition 
from most Liberals, who did not like an increase of 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 365 

power in a sovereign, and from many members both in 
the Lords and Commons who considered it an unwise 
and impolitic innovation, both as regards the United 
Kingdom and India. But Disraeli, from the first of his 
official life, had believed in greater power for the mon- 
arch, and he desired, also, to make Russia stand in awe 
of an empire. 

That the Queen was pleased with this new proof of 
loyalty was but natural ; and the country was not sur- 
prised when in August of the same year, 1876, 
Disraeli became the Earl of Beaconsfield, and the 
leader of the House of Lords. "Dizzy" — the pet 
name by which the Englishmen called him — had 
reached heights of which he had scarcely dared to 
dream. He was henceforward to be the friend of 
princes and emperors. 

The everlasting Eastern Question had again come to 
the front. Turkey, as usual, had oppressed her subjects, 
and was detested by every country over which she ruled. 
Insurrections had broken out in Crete, in the Herze- 
govina, and other provinces, and had been quenched as 
Eussia quenched Poland, — in the blood of men and 
women. 

Other insurrections began in Bosnia and in Herzegovina. 
The Turks insisted that Russia aided these people, who 
were Christians, against their enemies and masters, the 
Turks, who were Mohammedans. Count Andrassy, the 
Austrian minister, drew up a protest to the Porte, in 
which Austria, Germany,, and Eussia demanded that 
Turkey carry out the promises she had made. As ever 
before, she promised all things, and did nothing. 

A revolution took place in Constantinople, and Sultan 
Abdul Aziz was dethroned, and at once committed sui- 



366 THE EABL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

cide. Bulgaria, too, had revolted, and Turkey had sent 
Bashi-Bazouks to crush them. They did their work in 
a hideous manner. The English papers were filled with 
the atrocities. Lord Beaconsfield did not believe what 
he called "coffee-house babble," and Englishmen were 
sent to Bulgaria to ascertain the facts. 

The dreadful details of the massacre of women and 
children proved too true. In Philippopolis alone, twelve 
thousand persons had been killed. Mr. Gladstone pub- 
lished a pamphlet, entitled " Bulgarian Horrors, and the 
Question of the East," which aroused the English 
people to a white heat of indignation. 

Lord Beaconsfield still looked upon Turkey as essen- 
tial to the balance of power in Europe, and wished to 
maintain her, at all hazards, as a check to Eussia. 
Gladstone demanded that the Christian provinces be 
left to govern themselves, and that England should no 
longer seem to countenance the crimes of Turkey. 

In June, 1876, Servia and Montenegro declared war 
against Turkey. Servia was defeated. Eussia inter- 
vened, and obtained an armistice. Public meetings were 
held, and Gladstone moved the whole nation by his 
eloquence not to aid Turkey by arms, though Eussian 
oppression was feared as ever. 

Beaconsfield, like Palmerston, seemed ready for 
battle, if, thereby, England could be held up to the 
world as a great and controlling power. At the Lord 
Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall, November 9, 1876, he 
declared that England was prepared for war. "In a 
righteous cause, England is not the country that will 
have to inquire whether she can enter upon a second or 
a third campaign. In a righteous cause, England will 
commence a fight that will not end uutil right is done." 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 367 

Conferences of the Great Powers were arranged, but 
came to nothing. Turkey rejected all proposals. Then 
Russia declared war against Turkey, April 24, 1877. 
At the battle of Plevna, the Turks were victorious, and 
fought bravely under Osman Pasha. 

The tide soon turned. General Todleben, the Russian 
hero of the Crimean War, was placed in command. 
Kars was taken by assault of the Russians, November 18, 
1877, and Plevna surrendered December 10. T^en the 
Servians and Montenegrins joined Russia against their 
hated rulers, the Turks, advanced through Bulgaria, and 
threatened Constantinople in January, 1878. 

The war party in England grew stronger than ever. 
Some Liberals favored it, and nearly all the Tories. 
The music-halls and public-houses rang with a war-song 
containing the refrain, — 

"We don't want to fight, but by jingo, if we do, 
We've got the ships, we've got the men, 
— We've got the money too." 

The war party soon became known as the Jingo Party, 
and the Jingoes were proud of their title. Monster 
meetings were held in Hyde Park, both in favor of and 
and against war with Russia. Some could not forget 
the horrors of the Crimea under the rule of Palmerston. 
Some felt, like John Bright, that the "balance of 
power " was a myth ; that, instead of fighting each other, 
Russia and England should join hands to Christianize 
Asia. 

Finally word came that Turkey was conquered, and 
that the Treaty of San Stefano had been signed between 
Turkey and Russia, in March, 1878, whereby Bulgaria, 
extending from the Danube to the ^gean, and, stretch- 



368 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 

ing inland to the western boundaries of Macedonia, was 
to be an independent State, with a seaport on the ^gean 
Sea. 

Lord Beaconsfield objected to this treaty, declaring 
that it would place the whole south-east of Europe 
directly under Russian influence. Eussia felt that she 
had a right to make any terms with prostrate Turkey 
which she chose. Of course this was not possible, if 
Turkey was to be " protected," for the sake of peace (?) 
in Europe. 

The English fleet in the Mediterranean was ordered 
through the Dardanelles, and anchored near Constanti- 
nople. Native troops were ordered from India to occupy 
Cyprus, and to make an armed landing on the coast of 
Syria. Lord Derby, Foreign Secretary, at once resigned, 
as also Lord Carnarvon, secretary for the Colonies. 
Beaconsfield stood firm, and war with Russia seemed 
inevitable. England was in a state of great agitation, 
but the majority were with the Prime Minister. He 
believed in England, and when the doctrine of English 
interests was called selfish, he said, " It is as selfish as 
patriotism." 

Prince Bismarck now became a mediator, and sug- 
gested a congress to be held at Berlin, to discuss the 
Treaty of San Stefano. To this congress Lord Beacons- 
field went in person, accompanied by Lord Salisbury, the 
Foreign Secretary. 

His journey thither was a matter of the greatest inter- 
est. At every city crowds gathered to see the Jewish 
author and statesman, who had risen to the highest 
place in England, unaided save by his own strong will 
and brain. 

Prince Bismarck presided at the congress in the 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 369 

Radzivill Palace. After much discussion the Treaty of 
Berlin was effected, and Kussia and England were saved 
from a terrible war. By this treaty Bulgaria, north of 
the Balkans, was made an independent state, yet tribu- 
tary to the Sultan ; Bulgaria, south of the Balkans, 
called Eastern Roumelia, was to be under the direct 
rule of the Porte ; Montenegro was declared independ- 
ent ; also Servia and Eoumania ; Kars, Batoum, and 
Ardahan were ceded to Russia; and the Porte once 
more promised reforms. 

In Berlin, Beaconsfield was the lion of the occasion. 
Bismarck had great appreciation of his genius. Georg 
Brandes, the author, saw him in Berlin as he was 
going to the congress, leaning on the arm of his private 
secretary. "Over-exertion," he says, "was evident in 
every line of his countenance, and he acknowledged the 
deep and respectful salutations of the good citizens of 
Berlin with a weary and mechanical movement of his 
hand to his hat. But as I gazed into his pale and hag- 
gard face, I involuntarily thought of all the conflicts he 
had passed through, the disappointments he had experi- 
enced, the agonies and torments he had suffered, and the 
lofty courage with which he had triumphed over them 
all." 

When Lord Beaconsfield returned to England, he was 
met with the wildest enthusiasm. At Dover he spoke 
to the thousands who assembled to greet him, saying he 
had brought back "Peace with Honor." At Charing 
Cross he was met by the Lord Mayor in his robes of 
office, and a brilliant assemblage of the noted in poli- 
tics and fashion. Triumphal arches spanned the streets, 
banners waved, and thousands of workingmen thronged 
the way from the station to Downing Street. 



370 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

On July 27 Beaconsfield and Salisbury were enter- 
tained at a great banquet by the members of the Con- 
servative party, in the Riding School at Kensington. 
Later both received the Freedom of the City of London, 
and another grand banquet was given in their honor at 
the Guildhall. The Queen bestowed upon Beaconsfield ! 
the much-coveted honor of the Garter. Fame had indeed I 
come : all he could ask or wish. 

There was of course some dissatisfaction with the 
Treaty of Berlin, as there always is. The secret treaties 
made with Russia and Turkey before the Berlin Treaty 
were severely criticised. By the former it was agreed 
to give to Eussia, Batoum, Kars, and Bessarabia, and to 
divide Bulgaria. By the latter, Cyprus was handed over 
to the British, if England would guarantee to defend 
Turkey in her Asiatic dominions. 

The spirit of war or jingoism, once aroused, was 
destined to bear bitter fruit. England determined that 
Afghanistan should be friendly to herself rather than 
to Eussia, and wished to have a permanent resident in 
Cabul. To this Shere Ali, the son of Dost Mahommed, 
objected. A strong force, which resembled an army, 
■was sent thither in September, 1878, and soon Cabul 
and Candahar were occupied by the English. Shere Ali 
fled from his capital, died, and Yakoob Khan, his son, 
became his successor. The son, now the Ameer, by the 
Treaty of Gandamak, where the British camp was estab- 
lished, agreed, on account of receiving from the India 
Government sixty thousand pounds a year, to cede what 
Lord Beaconsfield called the " scientific frontier," so that 
India should be made safe from any attack by Eussia 
through Afghanistan. The Ameer was to be supported 
with money and arms, and men if need be, against any 
foreign power. 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFLELB. 371 

Very soon there was an uprising against the English 
envoy and his staff in Cabul, and they were all mur- 
dered. Of course Cabul was again invaded. Yakoob 
Khan, accused of complicity in the murders, was sent a 
prisoner to India. 

Ayoob Khan, another son of Shere Ali, had raised 
an army, and now attacked the British army of two 
thousand which came out to meet him from Candahar. 
His forces were under-estimated. He had twelve thou- 
sand men, and more than three times as many guns as 
the English. The English and Indian troops were cut 
to pieces. Those' who did not fall by the bullet were 
despatched with Afghan knives. Men and mules and 
camels lay piled dead along the road in their flight back 
to Candahar. The defeat at Maiwand of course occa- 
sioned great sorrow in England. They denounced the 
" scientific frontier," and wished they had never heard 
of Afghanistan. Later a force of ten thousand men, 
und^r General Sir Frederick Roberts, was sent from 
Cabul to avenge Candahar, and totally defeated Ayoob 
Khan and his army. Afterwards Candahar was given 
back to the Ameer of Afghanistan. 

Beaconsfield had another unpleasant war, — that with 
the Zulus, the most important tribe in South Africa. 
Cetewayo, the chief, often quarrelled with his neighboring 
tribe, the Boers or the Dutch occupants of the Transvaal 
Republic. A dispute about a strip of land was settled 
by English arbitration, and the land given to Cetewayo, 
but not until the chief had become distrustful of Sir 
Bartle Frere, the Lord High Commissioner from England. 

Cetewayo began to defend his country, for self-protec- 
tion he said. Sir Bartle Frere declared that the Zulu 
army must be disbanded. As it was not, the English 



372 THE EAEL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

troops marched at once into the Zulu country and met 
with a terrible defeat at Isandhlwana, January 22, 1879. 
The assegais of the half-naked savages did their bloody 
work. 

The young Prince Louis Napoleon, who had studied 
at the military schools in England, had joined in this 
war, and was surprised and killed while leaping into his 
saddle ; his naked body found dead in the long grass 
afterwards, with his mother's picture tied about his 
neck. Fourteen wounds showed that Zulu spears had 
no respect for even royalty. All England mourned the 
fate of the young heir to the throne of France, and 
sorrowed in the crushing sorrow of the lonely Empress 
Eugenie. 

Lord Beaconsfield said, "A very remarkable people 
the Zulus : they defeat our generals, they convert our 
bishops, they have settled the fate of a great European 
dynasty." 

Cetewayo was afterwards captured and imprisoned, 
and his country divided among native chiefs. He was 
brought to England in 1882, and later sent back to 
Africa to be restored to his dominion. He was defeated 
soon after in a war with another chief, and died of heart 
disease. 

The Transvaal Eepublic had been annexed to England 
unwillingly. It seemed as though the imperial Beaoons- 
field were to make of England one vast empire. Empires 
in India and in South Africa were to redound to the 
glory of the British Isles. 

All along, the Liberals of England had sympathized 
with the Boers in their desires for freedom. Mr. Glad- 
stone had said, in his Midlothian speeches, November 
25, 1879 : " The Transvaal is a country where we have 



THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELD. 373 

chosen, most unwisely, I am tempted to say insanely, to 
place ourselves in the strange predicament of the free 
subjects of a monarchy, going to coerce the free subjects 
of a republic, and to compel them to accept a citizenship 
which they decline and refuse. ... Is it not wonderful 
to those who are freemen, and whose fathers had been 
freemen, and who hope that their children will be free- 
men, and who consider that freedom is an essential con- 
dition of civil life, and that without it you can have 
nothing great and nothing noble in political society — 
that we are led by an administration, and led, I admit, 
by Parliament, to find ourselves in this position, that we 
are to march upon another body of freemen, and against 
their will to subject them to despotic government ? " 

The Boers of the Transvaal revolted, and surrounded 
and butchered their conquerors at Majuba Hill, February 
27, 1881. Three years later the South African Republic, 
the Transvaal, became completely independent. 

Meantime the imperial policy had lost popularity with 
the nation ; there was distress among the agricultural 
classes ; the Irish were disaffected because Lord Beacons- 
field thought Home Rule " scarcely less disastrous than 
pestilence and famine," and the people wished a change 
of power. The Conservatives were defeated in 1880, 
and Gladstone again became Prime Minister. 

Lord Beaconsfield was seventy-six years old. He 
went back to the trees and flowers of Hughenden — he 
loved his trees so much that he directed in his will that 
none of them should be cut down — and spent his leis- 
ure in writing his last novel, "Endymion." He loved 
to write, and since the income from his wife's estate 
ended with her life, he needed more money. The book 
brought him ten thousand pounds. 



374 THE EARL OF BEACON SFIELB. 

In March, 1881, lie suffered from an attack of bron- 
chitis. For four weeks the public made anxious inqui- 
ries about the change in his health from day to day. 
The Queen was deeply anxious, and wished to visit him, 
but was dissuaded by the physicians ; the workingmen 
were equally anxious. On Monday night, April 18, fol- 
lowing Easter Sunday, Lord Beaconsfield sank into a 
stupor.. At half-past four on the morning of Tuesday, 
April 19, his right hand in the clasp of his friends Lord 
Barrington and Lord Eowton, formerly Mr. Montagu 
Corry, his private secretary, and his left hand in that 
of Dr. Kidd, he died. 

Westminster Abbey was offered for a public funeral, 
but, by his own desire, he was buried in the vault at 
Hughenden Church by the side of his devoted wife, and 
his admiring friend Mrs. Willyams. The great and the 
lowly, royalty and peasant, gathered at that open grave. 
The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Connaught, and 
Prince Leopold brought wreaths and the sympathy of 
their royal mother. Beside them stood the sole surviving 
brother, Ralph Disraeli, and his son Coningsby, a lad of 
fourteen, to whom the estate of Hughenden is entailed 
by will. 

The coffin was hidden with flowers, since flowers had 
been his special delight from boyhood. The Queen sent 
his favorite blossom, a wreath of primroses, gathered 
that morning from the lawn at Osborne. It has now 
become the emblem of his party, and Primrose Leagues 
are scattered over England. The day of his death is 
still observed as Primrose Day. 

The Queen sent also a wreath of everlasting flowers 
and bay -leaves, tied Avith a white satin ribbon, on which 
were these words embroidered in gold: ^"'From Queen 



THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 375 

Victoria. A mark of true affection, friendship, and 
regret." 

On the turf beside the grave, were many floral offer- 
ings, one bearing the words: "Peace with Honor." 
Within the coffin was placed a solid silver casket, 
weighing two pounds, which had long been in the Dis- 
raeli family, containing a portrait of the deceased Earl. 

Two days after Lord Beaconsfield was buried. Queen 
Victoria and Princess Beatrice came to Hughenden, 
April 30, to visit the grave of their honored dead. He 
had idolized his Queen, and she had deep regard for her 
loyal and trusted subject. They went down into the 
vault, and placed a wreath of white camellias on his 
coffin, and took a last and sorrowing farewell of the 
man who had worshipped Avomanhood, and who was 
proud to serve his Queen. He directed in his will that 
no correspondence with her should ever be published 
without her consent and approval. Those both in favor 
of and opposed to his political beliefs, could but admire 
with Lord Granville " his rare and splendid gifts," and, 
with the Marquis of Salisbury, "his patience, his gentle- 
ness, his unswerving and unselfish loyalty to his col- 
leagues and fellow-laborers," and "his passion for the 
greatness of his country." 

Mr. Gladstone said : " The career of Lord Beaconsfield 
is, in many respects, the most remarkable one in Parlia- 
mentary history. Por my own part, I know but one that 
can fairly be compared to it in regard to the emotion of 
surprise, and when viewed as a whole, an emotion, I 
might almost say, of wonder ; and that is the career, and 
especially the earlier career, of Mr. Pitt. . . . 

" His extraordinary intellectual powers are as well 
understood by others as by me. . . . But there were 



376 THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 

other great qualities — qualities not merely intellectualj 
in the sense of being dissociated from conduct, but qual- 
ities immediately connected with conduct, with regard to 
which I should say, were I a younger man, that I should 
like to stamp the recollection of them on myself for my 
own future guidance. . . . There were qualities not only 
written in a marked manner on his career, but possessed 
by him in a degree undoubtedly extraordinary. I speak 
for example, of such as these — his strength of will ; his 
long-sighted persistency of purpose, reaching from the 
first entrance on the avenue of life to its very close ; his 
remarkable powers of self-government; and last, but not 
least, of all, his great parliamentary courage." 

A part of Lord Beaconsfield's wonderful mastery over 
men came, of course, from his wonderful mastery over 
self. He could be calm when others were wild with 
anger. He was self-centred, with few or no intimates. 
He was genuine and lasting in his friendship. He was 
magnanimous to foes, and cherished no animosities. 

To Carlyle, who had called him " a superlative Hebrew 
conjurer, spell-binding all the great lords, great parties, 
great interests, of England to his hand in this manner, 
and leading them by the nose like helpless mesmerized 
somnambulist cattle to such issue," Beaconsfield offered, 
and urged to accept, the Grand Cross of the Bath, with 
a life income corresponding to such rank, an honor 
never before conferred upon an English author. The 
" Sage of Chelsea " declined the honor, but he was grati- 
fied at the courtesy. 

John Leech had satirized him for twenty years in 
Punch, but he continued Leech's pension to his wife and 
children, which would have been discontinued at his 
death. 



THE EABL OF BEACON SFIELB. 377 

England has not forgotten her renowned Prime 
Minister. On April 19, 1883, a bronze statue of Lord 
Beaconsfield was unveiled in Parliament Square, in 
the presence of Lord Salisbury, Sir Stafford Northcote, 
and a great host of other friends and admirers. 



HENRY FAWCETT. 



HENEY FAWCETT, the blind Postmaster-General 
of England, was born at Salisbury, August 26, 
1833. His father, William Fawcett, a draper, was a 
man of great vigor of body, genial temperament, a good 
political speaker, and became Mayor of Salisbury. His 
mother, Mary Cooper, the daughter of a solicitor, was 
a woman of strong common-sense, deeply interested in 
politics, and an ardent reformer. 

The boy, Henry, active, enthusiastic, and merry, was 
placed at a small dame-school. That he did not help the 
quiet and order of it is manifest from a remark made by 
him to his mother : " Mrs. Harris says that if we go on, 
we shall kill her, and we do go on, and yet she does not 
die!" 

At the age of eight the boy was sent to the school of 
Mr. Sopp, at Alderbury, five miles from Salisbury. He 
was not especially pleased, as his letters home show. 
He writes, " I have begun ^ Ovid.' I hate it. . . . This 
is a beastly school — milk and water, no milk ; bread 
and butter, no butter." 

He used to tell, years after, how he asked at dinner, 
soon after his arrival, for " more meat, well done, no fat, 
and plenty of gravy." It is probable that the teacher 
was led to conclude that the restrictions at home had 

378 




HENRY FAWCETT. 



HENRY FAWCETT. 379 

not been very severe. At this school Henry began the 
study of Greek and French, but showed little aptitude 
for the languages. 

At fourteen he entered Queenwood College, kept by 
Mr. Edmonson. Here the lad became much interested 
in science. A composition which he wrote on " steam " 
so pleased the father, that he promised to give Henry 
a sovereign. It was the first thing which convinced Mr. 
Fawcett that there was " something in the boy." 

The composition abounded in statistics as to the cost 
of making railways, the number of passengers, and the 
great advantage to the farmer producer and the London 
consumer of a cheap transport of cheese ! 

" Fawcett, as his schoolfellows remember," says Leslie 
Stephen, in his fair and excellent life of the statesman, 
" was at this time tall for his age, loosely made, and 
rather ungainly. He preferred study to boyish sports, 
and, in spite of prohibitions, would desert the play- 
ground to steal into a copse with his books. He was 
best at mathematics, caring little for Latin and French. 
He learnt long passages by heart, and would wander in 
the fields repeating them aloud. 

" In an old chalk-pit, which was a favorite greenroom, 
he would gesticulate as he recited, till passing laborers 
had doubts as to his sanity. Even at this time, when the 
boys talked of their future lives, he always declared that 
he meant to be a member of Parliament, — an avowal 
they received by ^ roars of laughter.'" 

After eighteen months at Queenwood, young Fawcett 
was sent to King's College School, living in the house of a 
Mr. Fearon, a chief office-keeper in the Stamps and Taxes 
Department in Somerset House. To the conversation 
of this intelligent Liberal and strong free-trader, Faw- 



380 HENRY FAWCETT. 

cett always attributed the greatest influence. He played 
cribbage untiringly with Mrs. Fearon, that he might 
listen to her husband's talk. He was at an age when 
we take impressions easily, and the companionship was 
most fortunate. 

The Dean of Salisbury, Dr. Hamilton, was now con- 
sulted as to the future of this lad who "meant to go 
to Parliament." Upon seeing Henry's mathematical 
papers, the Dean said at once that he ought to go to 
Cambridge University. 

As the father was not a rich man, Henry decided upon 
that college Peterhouse, which gave the largest fellow- 
ships. When he reached college, the boys, says Stephen, 
vaguely speculated " as to whether he was an under- 
graduate, or a young farmer, or possibly somebody con- 
nected with horses at Kewmarket, come over to see the 
sights. He had a certain rustic air, in strong contrast 
to that of the young Pendennises who might stroll along 
the bank to make a book upon the next boat-race. He 
rather resembled some of the athletic figures who may 
be seen at the side of a north-country wrestling ring." 

Though fond of sports, " He never," says his class- 
mate, Stephen, " condescended to gambling. He was 
a good whist-player, but he gave up billiards, and when 
some of his college acquaintance fell into a foolish prac- 
tice of playing for more than they could afford, he did 
what he could to discourage them, and spoke of their 
folly with hearty contempt. 

" He had, in truth, too much sense and self-command — 
to say nothing of higher motives — to fall into errors of 
this kind. . . . The moral standard of Cambridge was, 
in certain respects, far from elevated; but Fawcett, 
though no ascetic or strait-laced Puritan, was in all 
senses perfectly blameless in his life." 



HENRY FAWCETT. 381 

Eond of mathematics himself, Fawcett soon became 
the centre of a little circle of mathematicians and read- 
ing men. Especially was the political economy of 
John Stuart Mill read and discussed. Sincere, never 
ashamed to show his enthusiasm and warm-heartedness, 
he made many friendships which lasted through life. 
Indeed, he seemed to have a passion for making friend- 
ships, like our own Emerson, who said, in " Friendship," 
" A new person is to me always a great event, and 
hinders me from sleep. . . When a man becomes dear 
to me, I have touched the goal of fortune.'' One of 
Fawcett's qualifications for making friendships was his 
utter incapacity for being awed by differences of posi- 
tion. He was as sensitive as any one to the claims of 
intellectual excellence, but his freedom from affectation, 
or false pretensions, saved him from any awkward shy- 
ness. He was equally at his ease with an agricultural 
laborer, or a prime minister, or a senior wrangler. 

After a time he became prominent in the debates at 
the " Union," speaking on National Education, The 
Crimean War, University Reform, and other topics. 
Finding that there were many competitors for Fellow- 
ships at Peterhouse, he entered another college at Cam- 
bridge, Trinity Hall, the college of Lord Chesterfield, 
Lord Lytton, and others. Here he was very happy. 
He had won a scholarship at the college examination 
in 1854, and determined to try for the senior wrangler- 
ship, — a most exciting contest. 

" In the Tripos," says Stephen, " for, as I imagine, the 
first and last time of his life, Fawcett's nerve failed 
him. He could not sleep, though he got out of bed and 
ran round the college quadrangle to exhaust himself. 
He failed to gain the success upon which he had counted 



382 HENRY FAWCETT. 

in the concluding papers." He stood seventh on the 
list. 

At Christmas, 1856, he was elected to a fellowship, 
which brought him two hundred and fifty pounds a year. 
Still determined to be a member of Parliament some 
day, he began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London. 
Desiring, as ever, to excel in public speaking, he joined 
a debating society, which held its meetings in an old- 
fashioned room in Westminster Tavern, near Westmin- 
ster Bridge. It is said that Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer 
once came here, mistaking it for the House of Commons, 
and only perceived his mistake when he heard no dull 
speeches, and saw no one asleep. 

Young Fawcett's eyes now began to pain him from 
over-use, and he was obliged to give up law for a time. 
He found employment by taking a pupil, Charles Cooke, 
nephew of the Master of Trinity Hall, who went with 
him to Paris to study French, and mathematics at the 
same time under Fawcett. 

A letter written about this time to an intimate friend 
of the family, Mrs. Hodding, shows the strong purpose 
of the young man of twenty-three : — 

"I regard you with such true affection that I have 
long wished to impart my mind on many subjects. . . . 
I started life as a boy with the ambition some day to 
enter the House of Commons. Every effort, every en- 
deavor, which I have ever put forth, has had this object 
in view. I have continually tried and shall, I trust, 
still try not only honorably to gratify my desire, but to 
fit myself for such an important trust. 

" And now the realization of these hopes has become 
something even more than the gratification of ambition. 
I feel that I ought to make any sacrifice, to endure any 



HENRY FAWCETT. 383 

amount of labor, to obtain this position, because every 
day I become more deeply impressed with the powerful 
conviction that this is the position in which I could be 
of the greatest use to my fellow-men, and that I could 
in the House of Commons exert an influence in remov- 
ing the social evils of our country, and especially the 
paramount one — the mental degradation of millions. 

"I have tried myself severely, but in vain, to discover 
whether this desire has not some worldly source. I 
could therefore never be happy unless I was to do every- 
thing to secure and fit myself for this position. For I 
should be racked with remorse through life if any self- 
ishness checked such efforts. For I must regard it as 
a high privilege from God if I have such aspirations, 
and if He has endowed me with powers which will 
enable me to assist in such a work of philanthropy. 
This is the career which perhaps the too bright hopes 
of youth have induced me to hope for." 

To^remove "the mental degradation of millions!'' 
This was indeed what Fawcett ever after lived and 
worked for. How seldom do we regard, as he did, 
aspiration "as a high privilege from God," and yet this 
is often the making of a man or woman. Aspiration, 
as a rule, means that one has power within him to 
achieve results. 

Alas ! how soon was this life-plan to be thwarted — 
this hope crushed ; thwarted it would have been in the 
case perhaps of nine persons out of ten, but not thwarted 
in young Henry Fawcett. 

On September 17, 1858, Fawcett went out shooting with 
his father on Harnham Hill. It is a lovely place, where 
he had often come to view the landscape, enriched by 
beautiful Salisbury Cathedral. The partridges flew across 



384 HENRY FAWCETT. 

a fence where the father had not the right of shooting, 
so he went forward about thirty yards, in front of his 
son, to prevent this again. They flew now towards 
young Fawcett. The father, with incipient cataract of 
one eye, and forgetting for the moment where his son 
stood, fired at the birds. A pheasant was killed, a few 
shots entered young Fawcett's chest, but two shots went 
higher, one passing through each glass of his spectacles, 
directly into the eyes, remaining permanently imbedded 
behind them. In one instant the brilliant young student 
was made blind for life. 

His first thought was, he afterwards told his sister, 
that he should never again see the view upon which he 
had looked that perfect autumn afternoon. He was pat 
into a cart and carried to the Longford farmhouse, about 
two miles and a half away, and doctors were summoned 
from Salisbury. When he reached his home, his first 
words to his sister were, " Maria, will you read the news- 
paper to me ? " 

About six weeks after the accident, he began to per- 
ceive light, but in three days total darkness came, and 
remained till his death. 

Young Fawcett was calm, even cheerful, but his father 
was broken-hearted. He had looked forward to great 
success for this son ; he and Henry were in a remarkable 
degree companions and confidants, and now both lives 
seemed almost valueless. He told a friend, "I could 
bear it if my son would only complain." 

Young Fawcett said years later, that he had made up 
his mind " in ten minutes " after the accident to carry 
out his cherished plans as far as possible. But it was 
evident that blindness must prove an almost insurmount- 
able barrier to success. He thought of attempting to go 



HENRY FAWCETT, 385 

on with the law, but soon gave it up. He tried to write 
with his own hand, but soon had to discontinue it. 
"But," says Stephen, "he had resolved to stick to his 
old ambition. Blind, poor, unknown, he would force 
his way into the House of Commons." 

At first he had occasional fits of depression, which he 
tried to keep from the knowledge of his mother and 
sister whom he idolized ; but he soon came to make cheer- 
fulness the habit and comfort of his life, and the joy of 
those about him. He resolved to be as happy as he could, 
and expressed, in later years, "some impatience with 
people who avowed or affected weariness of life." There 
was only one thing which he dreaded, loss of energy. 
He kept his wonderful activity, both of brain and body, 
to the last. 

Cheerful, determined though he might be, the hard 
fact was ever present, — he was blind. He left Lincoln's 
Inn, and went back to Cambridge, to give himself to 
study, — through the eyes of others. He took rooms in 
Trinity Hall, engaging as his guide and amanuensis a 
boy, Edward Brown, the son of a college servant at Cor- 
pus Christi College. Nine years later Brown entered 
Trinity College to study for the church. He went out to 
Natal, and died before he had been a year in his work. 

At Trinity Hall, Fawcett, as ever, gathered about him 
a delightful circle. His chief studies were now in the 
line of Political Economy, though he found time for 
Shelley and Wordsworth, Milton and Burke. He heard 
all of George Eliot's novels read, and was very fond of 
"Henry Esmond" and "Vanity Fair." He listened 
eagerly to the reading of Parliamentary debates, and 
every newspaper within reach. 

He was an enthusiastic Darwinian. He prepared 



386 HENRY FAWCETT. 

essays for the British. Association and the Social Science 
Association. His first public appearance was in Septem- 
ber, 1859, a year after he became blind, before the British 
Association at Aberdeen, where he gave a paper on the 
^' Social and Economical Influence of the New Gold." 

"He astonished," says Mr. Stephen, "an audience, to 
most of whom even his name had hitherto been unknown, 
by the clearness with which he expounded on economic 
theory and marshalled the corresponding statistics as 
few men could have done even with the advantage of 
eyesight. The discovery of Fawcett was the most re- 
markable event of the meeting." 

Soon after he presented a paper before the Social 
Science Association at Bradford, on the "Protection of 
Labor from Immigration," and another upon the theory 
and tendency of strikes. In the following year he served 
on a committee appointed to investigate the question of 
strikes. He w^as now but twenty-seven years old. Evi- 
dently he was to take a part in the thought and work 
of England, although blind. 

Among Fawcett's friends at Cambridge was Mr. Alex- 
ander Macmillan, a rising publisher. He made a sug- 
gestion to Fawcett, which proved of the greatest impor- 
tance, that he should write a popular manual of political 
economy. Fawcett began work on it in the autumn of 
1861, and it was published in the beginning of 1863. 
The book proved profitable to both author and publisher, 
and at once greatly widened the reputation of Fawcett. 

The blind young author was a most ardent disciple of 
John Stuart Mill. He wrote Mill in 1859: "For the 
last three years your books have been the chief educa- 
tion of my mind. I consequently entertain towards you 
such a sense of gratitude as I can only hope at all ade- 



HENRY FAWCETT. 387 

quately to repay by doing what lies in my power to 
propagate the invahiable truths contained in every page 
of your writings." 

A few years later Fawcett said in distributing some 
prizes at Manchester, "As I was reading Mill's ' Liberty/ 
perhaps the greatest work of our greatest living writer, 
as I read his noble, I might almost say his holy, ideas, 
thought I to myself. If every one in my country could 
and would read this work, how infinitely happier would 
the nation be ! How much less desirous should we be to 
wrangle about petty religious differences ! How much 
less of the energy of the nation would be wasted in con- 
temptible quarrels about creeds and formularies ; and how 
much more powerful should we be as a nation to achieve 
works of good, when, as this work would teach us to be, 
we were firmly bound together by the bonds of a wise 
toleration ! " 

In 1863, the year in which Fawcett's Manual was 
published, the Professorship of Political Economy be- 
came vacant at the University. There were four candi- 
dates : Fawcett of Trinity Hall, Mayor and Courtney of 
St. John's, and Macleod of Trinity. Fawcett's book had 
already been of great service to him. He produced 
strong testimonials from Sir Stafford Korthcote, Thorold 
Eogers, professor at Oxford, Herman Merivale, formerly 
professor at Oxford, and other well-known professors 
and writers. But Fawcett was an opponent of Conserva- 
tism and blind. Some said he could not preserve order 
in his classes ; and most, of course, regarded his loss of 
sight as an unfortunate objection. The election was 
warmly contested, but Fawcett won the prize. 

He wrote his mother : " The victory yesterday was a 
wonderful triumph. I don't think an election has pro- 



388 HENRY FAWCETT. 

duced so much excitement at Cambridge for years. At 
last excitement was greatly increased by its being made 
quite a church and political question. All the masters 
opposed me, with two exceptions, but I was strongly 
supported by a great majority of the most distinguished 
resident fellows. My victory was a great surprise to 
the University. I thought, on the whole, that I should 
win, but I expected a much smaller majority." 

This professorship, requiring a residence at Cambridge 
of eighteen weeks annually, gave him a salary of three 
hundred pounds, while the income from the fellowship 
was nearly the same amount. Fawcett continued to 
deliver his yearly course of lectures at Cambridge as 
long as he lived. 

At thirty years of age the blind Pawcett had become 
a professor at one of the great universities of the world, 
an author, and was ready to enter politics. But it was 
not an easy matter to enter. Thousands who were rich, 
and had sight, and were more prominent even than he, 
were eager for every position. Nothing daunted, he 
determined not only to try, but to succeed. Mill urged 
him to show his power in public. Fawcett wrote two 
political pamphlets : one on Mr. Hare's scheme for pro- 
portional representation, and another, a plan for a new 
Eeform Bill ; but they were probably but little read. 

He made inquiries at boroughs supposed to be in want 
of a candidate. He talked with Mr. Bright about a 
Scotch borough. The great statesman kindly but decid- 
edly advised him to wait till he was better known. He 
called on Lord Stanley to talk about the Reform Bilh 
Fawcett told a friend afterwards the lord " thought me, 
I fancy, rather young." 

The death of the admiral, Sir Charles Napier, left a 



EENET FAWCETT. 389 

vacancy in the representation of Southwark. A com- 
mittee had been appointed to find some candidate who, 
instead of spending money to procure his election, might 
be chosen on merit. Fawcett immediately called upon 
the committee. 

" He stated," says Stephen, " that he had read the 
report of the previous proceedings, and gave a satisfactory 
account of his principles. He brought as his credentials 
a letter from Lord Brougham, who had seen Fawcett at 
the Social Science Association, and had, no doubt, felt 
a genuine sympathy for a youthful audacity, in which, 
if in little else, there was some likeness between the 
two." 

Doubtless Fawcett realized the " youthful audacity " of 
his conduct, but he realized also that a man who stays 
in his room and wishes for results, usually obtains very 
little. The man with fearlessness and energy wins. 

The Southwark committee were pleased with the blind 
young^ politician, and consented to hold meetings in his 
behalf. At the first meeting but few were present to 
hear the unknown candidate ; but soon, as he spoke every 
night, hearers came from all parts of London, and the 
street outside the place of meeting was often crowded. 

He made new friends constantly. He declared that 
he would not spend one shilling to influence votes, and 
the people believed in the purity of his principles. But 
his blindness was the insurmountable obstacle. 

" How can he catch the eye of the speaker ? " said 
one. 

"How can he understand about laying out new 
streets ? " said another. 

Fawcett explained how he could inform himself by 
putting pins in a map. How little the people then real- 



390 HENRY FAWCETT. 

ized that he was destined to do more important work 
for England than the laying out of new streets ! 

Finally, Fawcett was obliged to give up the contest in 
favor of a well-known candidate, Sir Austin Henry 
Layard. 

About this time the father of Fawcett, " after many 
years of fruitless and disheartening toil and anxiety, 
brought to success a large mining undertaking in Corn- 
wall ; in consideration of which he was entertained at a 
banquet by the shareholders, and presented by them 
with a costly service of plate." 

Young Fawcett was told by his friends that he could 
never get into Parliament, and that, as he had already 
shown marked ability in some mining transactions, he 
" better go on the Stock Exchange and make a fortune." 

He replied, "No; I am convinced that the duties of 
a member of the House of Commons are so multifarious, 
the questions brought before him so complicated and 
difficult, that, if he fully discharges his duty, he requires 
almost a lifetime of study. If I take up this profession, 
I will not trifle with the interests of my country; I 
will not trifle with the interests of my constituents by 
going into the House of Commons inadequately pre- 
pared because I gave up to the acquisition of wealth the 
time which I ought to have spent in the acquisition of 
political knowledge." 

There was now a vacancy in the representation of 
Cambridge. Fawcett became a candidate. The Con- 
servatives opposed him as a Radical, and they were 
shocked that he was willing to admit Dissenters to fel- 
lowship ! The contest cost six hundred pounds, and 
Fawcett was defeated. 

A vacancy occurred soon after at Brighton. Again 



HENRY FAWCETT. 391 

Fawcett became a candidate. The contest, "in which 
rotten eggs and Brighton pebbles played their part," 
was bitter in the extreme. Fawcett was opposed be- 
cause he was poor, and would not, as well as could not, 
spend money on the election ; he had favored co-opera- 
tion, and was therefore said to be " plotting the ruin 
of the tradesmen," and worst of all, and above all other 
objections, he was blind. For the third time he was 
defeated. 

To any other man but Henry Fawcett, the case must 
have seemed utterly hopeless. Not so to him, who had 
made up his mind when a boy that he would sometime 
enter the House of Commons. He tried a fourth time 
for Brighton, and was elected. At thirty-two Fawcett 
had become a member of Parliament. 

What must have been his feelings as he sat in his 
seat for the first time ! He thus writes to his father : 
^'1 have just returned from my first experience of the 
Housaof Commons. I went there early in the morning, 
and soon found that I should have no difficulty in find- 
ing my way about. I walked in with Tom Hughes, 
about four minutes to two, and a most convenient seat, 
close to the door, was at once, as it were, conceded 
to me ; and I have no doubt that it will always be 
considered my seat. 

" Every one was most kind, and I was quite over- 
whelmed with congratulations. I am glad that my first 
visit is over, as I shall now feel perfect confidence that 
I shall be able to get on without any particular diffi- 
culty. The seat I have is as convenient a one as any in 
the House, and a capital place to speak from. I walked 
away from the House of Commons with Mill. ... I 
hope, now that I am so comfortably settled, some of 



392 HENRY FAWCETT. 

you will come up to London. When am I to expect 
Maria ? 

"Give my kindest love to mother and her^ and, in 
great haste to save post, believe me, dear father, ever 
yours affectionately, Henry Fawcett." 

Fawcett showed his good sense by remaining com- 
paratively quiet in the House of Commons for some 
months. His first set speech was on March 13, 1866, 
on the Reform Bill for the extension of the franchise. 

The Conservatives contended that the common people 
did not desire the right to vote. They were soon to be 
undeceived by the great reform meetings and Hyde 
Park riots. 

Fawcett spoke earnestly in behalf of the working- 
classes. He urged that the great questions of the future 
were those affecting labor and capital, and those most 
deeply concerned had a right to help make the laws. 
He showed how workingmen had conducted themselves 
nobly during the American Civil War, and could be 
trusted with the franchise in England. 

Fawcett's second speech, made the following month, 
was upon the opening of fellowships to Dissenters. At 
Oxford University, strange as it may seem in this 
nineteenth century of freedom of speech and belief, 
a Dissenter could not take a degree. At Cambridge a 
Dissenter could hold a scholarship, but not the higher 
reward of a fellowship, and consequently a place in the 
governing bodies of the colleges. Many fellowships 
in both universities could be held only on condition of 
taking orders in the Church of England. 

Fawcett argued that every religious test which ex- 
cluded any sect from the universities should be abol- 
ished. He felt that the fellowships should be given to 



HENRY FAIVCETT. 393 

the most distinguished men. He showed that Trinity 
had not had a Senior wrangler since 1846. Mr. Stirling, 
Senior wrangler in 1860, had been excluded from a fel- 
lowship because he was a Scotch Presbyterian. The 
Senior wrangler of 1861, again from Trinity, Mr. Aldis, 
was excluded because he was an English Dissenter. 
Mr. Aldis's two brothers were excluded for the same 
reason. 

Fawcett labored in support of the University Tests 
Abolition Bill, till, after being twice rejected by the 
House of Lords, in 1869 and 1870, it was passed in 
1871 by both Commons and Lords. Clerical fellow- 
ships were abolished in 1877. 

On the Bill for Elementary Education, introduced by 
Mr. Forster in 1870, Fawcett took a leading and most 
earnest part. He desired especially to see the children 
of agricultural laborers as well provided for intellect- 
ually as those in manufacturing districts. Both in 
ParUament and in the press he was constantly asking 
for better education, more comfortable homes, higher 
wages, and happier lives for the laborers. 

" Many years of my life," said Fawcett, " were passed 
on a large farm. Between many of the laborers and 
myself there has been such intimate friendship that I 
have been able to obtain a close insight into their daily 
life, and thus to become acquainted with their most 
pressing wants. 

" During the winter of 1867-68, when bread was 
at Is. 5d. the eight-]3oand loaf, the agricultural wages 
paid in South Wiltshire were 10s. a week. . . . Last 
Christmas I ascertained from a laborer, whom I knew 
sufficiently well to place implicit reliance on his state- 
ments, that he, his wife, and four young children were 



394 HENRY FAWCETT. 

obliged for many weeks to live upon dry bread and 
tea ; tlie only addition to this miserable diet was half a 
pound of butter, bought once a week as a Sunday luxury. 
This man was sober, industrious, and an excellent work- 
man, and had been euiployed upon the same farm for 
many years. 

"But independently of such cases as the one just 
described, it is a fact that the vast majority of agri- 
cultural laborers never can, or at least never do, make 
any provision for old age. There are large districts of 
the best cultivated land in the country, where it would 
be almost impossible to find a laborer who had saved five 
pounds. As a class, they look forward to be maintained 
upon parish relief when they are unable to work. It 
therefore appears that our agricultural economy is such 
that those who till our soil frequently spend their lives 
in poverty, and end their days in pauperism. ... 

" Leisure is a priceless blessing to those who possess 
some mental cultivation, but it hangs heavily on the 
hands of those who are as uneducated as our agricul- 
tural laborers. I remember one winter's evening calling 
on one of these laborers, about seven o'clock; I found 
him just going to bed. 

" On being asked why he did not sit up an hour or two 
longer, he said in a tone of peculiar melancholy which I 
can never forget, ' My time is no use to me ; I can't read. 
I have nothing to do, and so it is no use burning fire and 
candle for nothing.' When I reflected that this was a 
man endowed by nature with no ordinary intellectual 
power, I thought what a satire his words were upon our 
vaunted civilization. . . . 

" Education must cause an advance in wages, since 
if laborers were less ignorant, they would be more enter- 



HENRY FAWCETT. 395 

prising, and would be willing to migrate to localities 
where labor was more highly remunerated. Education 
would also cause more comfortable cottages to be built; 
for, if a man had some mental cultivation, he would not 
submit to dwell in a hovel, and he would be outraged if 
all his children were obliged to sleep in one room. . . . 

"A man's moral qualities are, as a general rule, de- 
veloped by the proper training of the mind. It is of 
peculiar importance in agriculture that the workman 
should possess a high moral character. The profits of 
the farmer often entirely depend upon the honesty and 
the fidelity with which his laborers do their work.'' 

Mr. Fawcett did not believe in free schools, as we so 
heartily do in America, because he thought parental re- 
sponsibility would be thereby diminished, and the prudent 
be obliged to pay for the spendthrift ; but he labored con- 
stantly for compulsory education, and after years of effort 
saw it accomplished by Mr. Mundella's bill in 1880. 

He found by personal investigation that children were 
taken away from school at a very early age, and made to 
earn to help support the family. In one village there 
was not a single youth who could read sufficiently well 
to enjoy a newspaper. " A child when he is seven or 
eight years old can earn a shilling a week by holloaing 
at crows, and when a year older gets two shillings a 
week as plough-boy. These children are almost invari- 
ably taken away from school at this early age, and they 
consequently soon forget the little they have learned." 

In the preservation of open spaces or parks for the 
poor, Fawcett worked untiringly. He knew that the 
people who lived in stifling rooms needed the sunlight 
and air now and then, to make life endurable. He knew 
that land was becoming so valuable in London, and trade 



396 HENRY FAWCETT. 

SO grasping, that the forests and parks and gardens would 
soon become a thing of the past, unless somebody who 
loved humanity took the part of the workers, who were 
too busy earning their daily bread to lift a hand in their 
own defence. 

" The General Enclosure Act of 1845," said Fawcett, 
"distinctly contemplated that a certain amount should 
be reserved from land proposed to be enclosed, as allot- 
ment-gardens for the laboring poor, and as a recreation 
ground for the public. As an illustration of the reckless 
way in which enclosures have been permitted, it may be 
mentioned that in the session of 1869, a bill was intro- 
duced which proposed to enclose 6,900 acres in different 
parts of the country, and out of this the Enclosure Com- 
missioners reserved three acres as recreation grounds for 
the public, and six acres as allotment-gardens for the 
laboring poor. ... 

"Perhaps it will be said, the rich are generally the 
protectors of the poor; and when every one is so 
anxious that people should have healthy recreation, and 
that the poor should have gardens, there will be always 
some one who will take care that land is reserved for 
each of these purposes. But six acres for gardens and 
three for recreation grounds out of 6,900 acres is a sad 
commentary upon such a pleasing theory." 

After giving examples of land formerly used as com- 
mons or parks, now appropriated by landed gentry, he 
says, "Withypool Common, situated in North Devon, 
comprises 1,904 acres, and the amount to be reserved out 
of this large area, as a recreation ground for the public, 
was one acre. . . . Let us hear what the parish clerk 
of Withypool says on the subject. Some member of the 
committee asked him whether the resident landlords did 



HENRY FAWCETT. 397 

not protest when only one acre was reserved for a recrea- 
tion ground. His reply was : ' The landlords seem to 
say that we have got recreation ground enough ; besides, 
the laborers could go to work, and recreate themselves 
with that.' '' This remark certainly did not imply very 
great concern for the laborers. It is fortunate for Eng- 
land that Fawcett and a few other true men made it 
their concern, for such men save a country from revolu- 
tions. 

"It has been calculated," said Fawcett, "that from 
the beginning of the eighteenth century up to the 
year 1845, about seven million acres of land had been 
enclosed. Since 1845 this quantity has been increased 
by 484,893 acres. . . . One rural population has been 
deprived of that which once gave a most important 
addition to their income. The common often enabled 
them to keep some poultry, a pig, and a cow. Many 
villages may now be traversed, and not a single laborer 
cao^ be found possessing a head of poultry; few even 
keep a . pig, and not one in ten thousand has a cow. 
What is the result of this ? The laborer does not live 
as well as he did a hundred years since ; he and his 
family seldom taste meat, and his children suffer cruelly 
from the difficulty he has in obtaining milk for them. 

" Not long since I happened to be conversing with an 
agricultural laborer in a southern county. After having 
remarked that a cow which was passing us was his, he 
said, in a tone of peculiar melancholy, ' I shall soon have 
to get rid of her, and when she goes, I sha'n't stop here 
any longer, but shall emigrate. My wages are so small 
that I don't know how I could bring up my children, if 
it wasn't for the help she gave me.' 

^' Upon asking him why he should be obliged to sell 



398 HENRY FAWCETT. 

his cowj he simply said, ' They are going to enclose our 
common ; ' and he significantly asked how it was that 
a gentleman who had something like ten thousand acres 
could be so anxious to get hold of the 'poor man's com- 
mon ? Remembering that the Home Secretary had 
defended enclosures in the House of Commons because 
the Home Office never received complaints from the 
locality, I asked this laborer why he and his friends did 
not resist that which they so much dreaded ? 

" He replied that he had never heard of the Home 
Office ; and he evidently thought that I was suggesting 
to him just as hopeless a task as if I had advised him to 
induce the -river, by the side of which we were standing, 
to flow ill an opposite direction. It should surely be 
remembered that, although the landed interest is 
abundantly represented in Parliament, those who till the 
land have no one who is directly interested either in 
adequately expressing their wants or in effectively pro- 
testing against any injustice inflicted upon them." 

Fawcett was outspoken against the use of so much 
land for game. " The passion for the preservation of 
game," he said, " which has gradually assumed such 
dangerous proportions, now probably exerts a more 
powerful influence than any other circumstance to 
promote enclosures. People who spend a great part of 
their lives in slaughtering half-tamed pheasants are 
naturally desirous to keep the public as far off as possi- 
ble from their preserves. This constant pursuit of what 
is falsely called ' sport ' often generates so much selfish- 
ness that a man is willing that the enjoyment of the 
public should be sacrificed in order that he may kill a 
few more hares and pheasants." 

Fawcett used to say that " the worst and most mis- 



HENRY FAWCETT. 399 

chievous of all economies was that which aggrandized a 
few and made a paltry addition to the sum total of 
wealth by shutting out the poor from fresh air and 
lovely scenery." 

Fawcett always took delight in long walks, and in 
having his companions tell him about the beauties of 
the landscape^as they walked. 

" It is a reflection," says Stephen, " which has some- 
thing of the pathetic for the future generations of 
Londoners who will enjoy the beauties of the Surrey 
Commons and the forest scenery of Epping, that their 
opportunities of enjoyment are due in so great a degree 
to one who could only know them through the eyes of 
his fellows." 

Meantime a new joy had come into Fawcett's earnest, 
busy life. He had married, April 23, 1867, Millicent 
Garrett, twenty years old, the daughter of Mr. Newson 
Garrett of Aldeburgh, Suffolk ; a most attractive j^oung 
lady, whose devotion, whose brilliant intellect, and whose 
helpfulness proved the greatest blessing of his life. 
There are comparatively few such intellectual unions 
as the Brownings and the Fawcetts. Mrs. Fawcett's 
volumes on " Political Economy," published in 1870 and 
1874, like her husband's, met with a large sale. Her 
essays in the leading magazines are bound up with his 
in books. Her ability in public speaking, her grace, her 
womanly manner, her interest in all matters of education 
and progress, have made her honored and beloved. 

Their first home after marriage was at 42 Bessborough 
Gardens, and in 1874 till his death at the age of fifty-one. 
The Lawn, Lambeth, which had a garden about three- 
quarters of an acre in extent, where Fawcett could walk 
and think. " It included," says Stephen, " a couple of 



400 HENRY FAWCETT. 

small greenhouses, in which he could raise flowers, and 
it was his special pride to send presents of asparagus and 
sea-kale to his parents, to show the superiority of the 
London climate for the growth of vegetables. The house 
itself was small, but a very pretty, old-fashioned resi- 
dence, suitably adorned by the taste of his wife." 

Mr. Moncure D. Conway thus describes Fawcett in 
these early years of his Parliamentary career : " The 
visitor to the House of Commons, waiting at the door 
of the Strangers' Gallery, and watching the members of 
Parliament as they file in by the main entrance, will, no 
doubt, have his eye particularly arrested by a tall, fair- 
haired young man, evidently blind, led up to the door by 
a youthful, petite lady with sparkling eyes and blooming 
cheeks. She will reluctantly leave him at the door. . . . 

" As she turns away, many a friendly face will smile, 
and many a pleasant word attend her as she trips lightly 
up the stairway leading to the Ladies' Cafe, near the 
roof of the House. . . . The two are as well-known fig- 
ures as any who approach the sacred precincts of the 
legislature. The policemen bow low as they pass ; the 
crowd in the lobby make a path. . . . The strangers 
ask, ' Who is that ? ' and a dozen bystanders respond, 
^Professor Fawcett,' 

^' No one can look upon him but he will see on his 
face the characters of courage, frankness, and intelligence. 
He is six feet two inches in height, very blond, his 
light hair and complexion, and his smooth, beardless 
face giving him something of the air of a boy. His 
features are at once strongly marked and regular. He 
narrowly escaped being handsome, and his expression is 
very winning. His countenance is habitually serene, 
and no cloud or frown ever passes over it. 



HENRY FAWCETT. 401 

" His smile is gentle and winning. It is probable that 
no blind man has ever before been able to enter upon so 
important a political career as Professor Fawcett, who, 
yet under fifty years of age, is the most influential of the 
independent Liberals in Parliament. From the moment 
that he took his seat in that body, he has been able — 
and this is unusual — to command the close attention of 
the House. He has a clear, fine voice, speaks with the 
utmost fluency, has none of the University intonation, 
and none of the hesitation or uneasy attitudes of the 
average Parliamentary speaker. He scorns all subter- 
fuges, speaks honestly his mind, and comes to the point. 
At times he is eloquent, and he is always interesting. 
He is known to be a man of convictions." 

Always taking the side of the poor or the oppressed, 
it was not strange that Fawcett became the advocate for 
India, so much so that he was for years called the 
" Member for India." He felt that in the government 
of nearly two hundred millions, most of them poor, 
abuses would and did creep in. He pleaded for a deeper 
interest in the welfare of that far-off country, and for 
fairness and justice. "The people of India," he said, 
" have not votes ; they cannot bring so much pressure 
to bear upon Parliament as can be brought by one of our 
great railway companies." 

He was constantly seeking to know if the condition of 
the masses under English rule was better than under 
native rule. He insisted that the governing forces in 
India should give a full account of their doings. He 
opposed heavy taxes in India, and showed how the poor 
were constantly living on the verge of starvation. He 
made himself familiar with the details of the finances 
of India. He pointed out, and spoke in no uncertain 



402 HENRY FAWCETT. 

language, about building official residences for governors, 
which cost £160,000. He exposed the selfishness of 
some politicians in that distant country. 

The people of India soon learned who was their friend. 
Addresses were voted to him by a great number of 
native associations. When the Liberals were defeated 
at Brighton, and Fawcett lost his seat, a fund of £400 
was immediately raised in India to assist in the expenses 
of the contest at Hackney, from which place Fawcett 
was elected in 1874. 

In 1875 he moved that the whole expense of the 
Prince of Wales' visit to India should be paid by Eng- 
land. Both Gladstone and Disraeli opposed this, and it 
was voted that India should pay £30,000. When the 
Duke of Edinburgh visited India and distributed £10,000 
worth of gifts, the money was taken from the Indian 
revenues. This Fawcett called "melancholy meanness." 

Fawcett was heartily opposed to primogeniture and 
entail. Of the first he said, " It fosters what may be 
regarded as peculiarly a besetting sin of the English ; 
for it encourages the contemptible pride which is ex- 
hibited in the desire to found a family. We all eagerly 
seize at any justification for wrong-doing ; and the man, 
who, in order to create an eldest son, impoverishes his 
younger children, can find some consolation when his 
conscience upbraids him, from the fact that he is leaving 
his property exactly in the same way as the State 
declares it ought to be distributed in accordance with 
principles of natural justice. . . . 

" At the present time, the law permits land to be set- 
tled, or, as it is often termed, entailed upon any number 
of lives in being, and twenty-one years after. Almost 
all the large estates of the landed aristocracy are so 



HENRY FAWCETT. 403 

entailed that those who are in actual possession of them 
are only life-owners ; the freehold is not their property, 
and consequently it cannot be sold. . . . The power of 
entailing or settling land should be restricted. . . . Lord- 
lieutenants, deputy-lieutenants, high sheriffs, and county 
magistrates ought not in future to be chosen almost en- 
tirely from the land-owning class, but should be selected 
from the most worthy and best qualified men in the 
county, whatever may be their social position. The 
political and social importance now attached to the pos- 
session of land would be considerably diminished if the 
present constitution of the House of Lords were funda- 
mentally changed." 

Fawcett was an earnest advocate of co-operation and 
profit-sharing. He now stood so prominently before the 
country that he was to receive an additional honor. He 
was appointed Postmaster-General, April 27, 1880. 

He writes home : " My dear Father and Mother, — 
You^will, I know, all be delighted to hear-that last night 
I received a most kind letter from Gladstone offering me 
the Postmaster-Generalship. ... I did not telegraph to 
you the appointment at first because Gladstone did not 
wish it to be known until it was formally confirmed by 
the Queen; but he told me in my interview w^th him 
this morning that he was quite sure that the Queen took 
a kindly interest in my appointment." 

He had now been fifteen years in the House of Com- 
mons, filling his professorship at Cambridge, writing 
valuable books, and all this time never too busy to make 
friends, to be a cheerful comrade, especially with young 
men, to keep warm and bright his home affections, and 
his tenderness and sympathy for the poor. 

When he went to Salisbury he made it a point to visit 



404 HEN BY FAWCETT. 

his father's old laborers. " How successful he was in 
throwing himself into their feelings may be inferred 
from an anecdote of his father's old farm-servant Rum- 
bold. Rumbold was one day giving to Fawcett's mother 
the last news from his sties; ^and/ he added, 'mind 
you tell Master Harry when you write to him, for if 
there's one thing he cares about 'tis pigs.' It was one 
thing, though hardly the one thing." 

He was always in the habit of writing a weekly letter 
home. He happened one day to ask his sister Maria 
what gave his parents most pleasure ? She replied, 
" Your letters." Ever after that, no matter how over- 
whelmed with work, he wrote tivo letters a week to these 
dear ones. 

His own home was pre-eminently a happy one. His 
only child, Philippa, born in 1868, was his pride and 
companion. They walked, and rode on horseback, and 
skated together. On the open spaces he would skate 
alone, his little daughter whistling to guide him as to 
her whereabouts. 

Fawcett declared in 1880, says Stephen, " that no one 
had enjoyed more than he a skate of fifty or sixty miles 
in the previous frost. In later years he used to insist 
that every one in the house, except an old cook, should 
partake of his amusement. His wife and daughter, his 
secretary, and two maids, would all turn out for an expe- 
dition to the frozen Fens. . . . His own servants loved 
him, and the servants of his friends had always a pleas- 
ant word with him. He was scrupulously considerate in 
all matters affecting the convenience of those dependent 
upon him." 

An especial pet was a little dog called Oddo, after a 
character in "Feats on the Fiord." He came to the 



HENRY FAWCETT, 405 

house from the refuge for lost dogs, and had good rea- 
son to be grateful for the care bestowed upon him. A 
cat named " Ben '^ was also a pet. 

Fawcett was very fond of fishing. A friend once 
remarked to him upon the cruelty to animals involved 
in fishing. "Without discussing that point, Fawcett 
apologized for his own delight by a very important con- 
sideration. He could not, he said, relieve himself by 
some of the distractions which help others to unbend. 
.... He could not, for example, glance through the 
pages of a magazine or a novel, or join in the games of 
the young, or could only do so with difficulty, and in 
constant dependence upon others. Blindness increased 
concentration by shutting out distractions. We close 
our eyes to think, and his were always closed. . . . Fish- 
ing served admirably to give enough exercise to muscle 
and mind to keep his faculties from walking the regular 
treadmill of thought from which it is often so hard to 
escape." 

Fawcett was forty-six when he became Postmaster- 
General. He took hold of the work heartily and ear- 
nestly. In his first year he took up the important 
matter of Post-office Savings Banks, which had been 
introduced twenty years previously, and greatly ex- 
tended their benefits.^ 

The Postage-stamp saving scheme was adopted in 
1880. Little slips of paper were prepared with twelve 
squares each, the size of a stamp. To these, as persons 
were able to save, penny stamps (two cents each) could 
be affixed. When the slip was full, and they had thus 

1 A full description of Post-office Savings Banks may be found in my book, 
"Social Studies in England," for tliose who are interested in a plan whicii 
it is to be hoped America will adopt. — S. K. B. 



406 HENRY FAWCETT. 

saved twenty-five cents, any postmaster would give them 
a bank-book. In four years the total number of deposi- 
tors had increased by a million. 

The facilities for life insurance and annuities were 
increased. A person could insure his or her life, or buy 
an annuity at any one of seven thousand offices, and pay 
in any sums, and at any time. 

So eager was Mr. Fawcett that the poor should be 
helped to save, that he wrote " Aids to Thrift," of which 
a million and a quarter copies were distributed gratui- 
tously. He introduced the new system of postal-orders, 
devised under his predecessor, with very low commis- 
sions charged. He was instrumental in the passage of 
the Parcel Post Act, enabling the post-office to carry and 
deliver parcels under a prescribed weight at a specified 
charge, without regard to distance. The number of 
parcels carried annually soon reached over twenty 
millions. 

He was in favor of cheap telegrams for the people, 
one cent per word, with a minimum charge of sixpence. 
Government had purchased the telegraphs, giving the 
large sum of £10,000,000, for a property valued at 
£7,000,000. His plans in this matter were not carried 
out until shortly after his death. 

Pawcett became emphatically the good friend of his 
employes. He believed in their hoiesty, was courteous, 
kindly, and most considerate. " He would sooner expose 
himself to inconvenience, and even deprive himself of 
what appeared to be official assistance of an almost 
indispensable character, than subject those from whom 
he might have demanded it to inconvenience. Numer- 
ous instances have recurred to me," says Mr. Blackwood, 
" when he preferred to wait for information rather than 



HENRY FAIVCETT. 407 

cause an officer to forego his leave of absence, and even 
miss a train or his usual luncheon-hour." 

Fawcett was especially anxious to increase the oppor- 
tunities of work for women. He employed them in the. 
various departments, and found them accurate, faithful, 
and competent. One of my pleasantest recollections of 
England is an evening spent in 1882 at the hospitable 
home of Mr. A. W. W. Dale, a Fellow of Trinity Hall, 
Cambridge. Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett were present at the 
dinner, and three or four others. Mr. Fawcett seemed 
deeply interested about America and a true friend to 
her : asking questions upon all important subjects, a 
delightful talker, full of cheer, most cordial in manner, 
and a man of whom a nation might well be proud. His 
sightless eyes did not dim the brightness of his manly, 
open face. His wife was as able in conversation as she 
was distinguished in face and bearing. 

In the fall of this year, 1882, Mr. Fawcett had a dan- 
gerous illness — diphtheria followed by typhoid-fever. 
The whole country was anxious about the result. The 
Queen often telegraphed twice a day. '*' He spoke when 
at his worst," says Stephen, " of a custom which he had 
for many years observed, of making presents of beef 
and mutton to his father's old laborers or their widows 
at Christmas. As soon as he became distinctly con- 
scious, he told his secretary to be sure to make tlie 
necessary arrangements. He would also ask whether 
the inmates of his family, or the doctors who came to 
see him, were getting proper attention at their meals." 

After being very near death, he recovered, and gained 
strength rapidly. Friends daily came to read to him, 
"Vanity Fair" being among the books most enjoyed. 

For two years he attended to his work as usual ; but 



408 HENRY FAWCETT. 

the sickness was evidently the beginning of the end. 
He took cold the last of October, 1884, and was threat- 
ened with congestion of the lungs. On Thursday morn- 
ing, November 6, it was ascertained that the action of 
the heart was weakened. At four o'clock Mrs. Garret 
Anderson, M. D., the sister of Mrs. Fawcett, and Sir 
Andrew Clark reached Cambridge, and found Fawcett 
dying. He was still able to speak, and asked if dinner 
had been provided for Sir Andrew Clark. 

Soon his hands and feet grew cold. Thinking that 
the weather had changed, he said to his wife, "The 
best thing to warm my hands would be my fur gloves : 
they are in the pocket of my coat in the dressing-room." 

These were his last words. He fell into a sleep in 
a few minutes, and passed away. He was buried No- 
vember lOj in the churchyard of Trumpington, near 
Cambridge, a great crowd of all classes coming together 
to mourn for their beloved dead. 

Letters came to the stricken family from rich and poor 
alike. The Queen wrote to Mrs. Fawcett ; Mr. Gladstone 
wrote a letter to Fawcett's father about the remarkable 
qualities of his noble son, and the good he had done 
for England. 

A company of carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths 
wrote Mrs. Fawcett : " The loss to you must be beyond 
measure ; but we, as part of the nation, do give you who 
have been his helper, our heartfelt sympathy in your 
great trouble, and we do hope you may find a little 
consolation in knowing that his work that he has done 
for the working-classes has not been in vain." 

A Provident Society asked Mrs. Fawcett to allow a 
penny testimonial to be given by the working-peoj^le of 
the whole country, " not in the shape of charity, but for 



HENRY FAWCETT. 409 

public and striking services rendered by one of the best 
men since Edmund Burke. We only wish he had lived 
twenty years longer." 

Mrs. Fawcett was able to reply to this kind intention 
that her husband's forethought and prudence had left 
her and her daughter comfortably provided for. 

Many deserved honors came to Fawcett before his 
death. The University of Oxford made him Doctor of 
Civil Law. The University of Wiirzburg, in 1882, made 
him Doctor of Political Economy, the only other person 
upon whom that degree had been conferred being M. de 
Laveleye. The Institute of France, in May, 1884, made 
him a corresponding member of the Section of Political 
Economy. The Koyal Society made him a Fellow. The 
University of Glasgow, in 1883, gave him the degree of 
L.L.D., and elected him to the Lord Eectorship, the 
other candidates being Lord Bute and Mr. Buskin. 
Death prevented Mr. Fawcett from delivering the cus- 
tomary address on taking liis seat at the head of the 
University. All this, and blind ! 

After his death, by national subscription, a monument 
by Mr. Gilbert, A.R.A., was erected in AVestminster 
Abbey ; from the same fund, a scholarship tenable by 
the blind of both sexes, founded at Cambridge 5 also 
from the same fund toward providing a playground at 
the Royal Normal College for the Blind at Norwood. 

Fawcett had felt great interest in this institution, 
especially as it enabled a large proportion of the inmates 
to earn their own living. He protested against " walling 
up" the aged blind in institutions; for training tlie 
young tliey were necessar}^ He said, "Home associa- 
tions are to us as precious as to yon. I know from my 
own experience that the liappiest moments that I spend 



410 HENRY FAWCETT. 

in my life are when I am in companionship with some 
friend who will forget that I have lost my eyesight, who 
will talk to me as if I could see, who will describe to me 
the persons I meet, a beautiful sunset, or scenes of great 
beauty through which we may be passing." 

He urged his friends to help to " replace the depress- 
ing misery of dependence by the buoyant activity which 
comes from self-reliance and from the consciousness of 
the power to earn one's own living." 

A statue has been erected in the market-place at Salis- 
bury, where he used to play when a boy ; his portrait by 
Herkomer has been presented to Cambridge by members 
of the University ; memorials have been placed in Salis- 
bury Cathedral and in Trumpington church ; a drinking- 
fountain commemorative of his service for the rights 
of women has been placed on the Thames Embankment. 
Fawcett was an earnest advocate of Woman Suffrage. 
He spoke in favor of it in the House of Commons, and 
in his books. He believed that " women should have the 
same opportunity as men to follow any profession, trade, 
or employment to which they desire to devote their 
energies." He deprecated in his " Essays " the " social 
customs and legal enactments which combine to discour- 
age women of every class from earning their liveli- 
hood." 

Fawcett supported ardently the first proposal to admit 
women to the Cambridge local examinations, and the 
first meeting which led to the foundation of Newnham 
College was held in Mrs. Fawcett's drawing-room. Both 
Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett were untirinsr in their efforts for 
the higher education of women in England. What a 
reward for his labors could he have lived to see his 
daughter Philippa Garrett Fawcett in June, 1890, not 



HENRY FAWCETT. 411 

yet twenty-two 3^ears of age, carry off the highest honors 
in mathematics at Cambridge, standing above the Senior 
wrangler ! 

"When her name was read in the Senate House of 
Cambridge, Saturday, June 7, prefaced by the words, 
'Above the Senior wrangler,' the enthusiasm of the 
under-graduates was unbounded," says the Illustrated 
London News of June 26. Thus heartily did the young 
men recognize and feel proud of the ability of one, 
though not of their sex, who had excelled them. 

" Miss Fawcett has the self-possession of her father," 
says a writer in the Fall Mall Gazette. " Keen as she 
was to succeed, Miss Fawcett made a rigid habit of going 
to bed at eleven and rising about eight. . . . When the 
ordeal drew nigh. Miss Fawcett simply faced it with the 
consciousness that she had done her best, and that worry- 
ing would only do harm. She slept every night as 
soundly as ever in her life. She w^rote her papers coolly, 
deliberately, without erasure. 

" She thought, of course, that she had done badly ; but 
one thing which gave her this idea was the most notable 
fact that she did not feel tired at the end. On the day 
when the list was to be read. Miss Fawcett did indeed 
wake early with excitement, and confessed to reading 
'Mansfield Park' in bed, in order to occupy and calm 
her mind. . . . When asked the question, 'Don't you 
wish it were all over ? ' she answered, 'No ; I don't want 
to have three weeks taken out of my life.' . . . Among 
other interests. Miss Fawcett has inherited from her 
father and mother a strong one in political and social 
economies, and her speeches on these and other sub- 
jects in the college debating society have always been 
markedly practical and to the point." 



412 HENRY FAWCETT. 

Eliza Putnam Heaton thus describes the London home 
of the Fawcetts' : — 

" There is a plain, four-story, cream-colored house in a 
quiet, unfashionable street close to the British museum. 
All its neighbors are of the dark, smoky brick so dear to 
the Londoner. It is further distinguished from them by 
its pink and white awnings, the flowers in its windows, 
and its air of liveliness noticeable even by a passer. . . . 

" The dim rays of a London sun fall across an old- 
fashioned bureau, strewn with papers and writing mate- 
rials, and cunningly ensconced in a corner by the fire- 
place, where, in spite of the sun's feeble efforts, if it be 
toward night, a cheery blaze is leaping. The floor is 
warm with bright colored rugs, and soft green and crim- 
son draperies hang in the doorways and at the windows. 
Pictures look down from the walls, prominent among 
them being a portrait in oil of the late Postmaster-Gen- 
eral Fawcett, or Professor Henry Fawcett, as the men 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, still affectionately call 
him. Opal-tinted vases are filled with the crimson and 
yellow poppies that make the English fields glorious in 
summer; books are everywhere, and so are quaint art 
objects, yet there is nothing in the way, nothing that 
one could knock off or throw down. . . . 

"Presently, perhaps, the curtains part, and there 
appear two figures, one below medium height, small, but 
perfectly proportioned, slight, erect, well knit, and active 
looking, with large, expressive blue-gray eyes, and a 
great plaited coronet of light-brown hair. The fresh, 
healthy complexion, and the simple gray cloth walking- 
dress go admirably with the light step that suggest much 
out-door exercise. 

" With an arm about the shoulders of this figure there 



HENBY FAWCETT. 413 

may be another, somewhat taller, younger, with girlish 
curves, and shy, girlish ways. You note darker hair 
than her mother's, drawn loosely back from a pretty 
forehead and coiled high. The eyes are quiet, straight- 
forward, with a questioning look under their curved 
brows. The hands are well formed, not small, but sup- 
ple and unadorned with rings. A jersey waist, with a 
bunch of dewy roses at the belt, completes for you the 
picture of as fresh, fair, and rosy a girl as ever played 
tennis or applauded a game of cricket, to say nothing of 
wrestling in the grapple of intellectual thew and sinew, 
in w^hich sheer mental strength and staying powers are 
the only things that count to the wranglers." 

These two persons are Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett 
and her daughter Philippa. 

It was fortunate that Fawcett lived to see so much 
accomplished for woman's higher education, and for 
suffrage, and better conditions for the laborers. He 
died in the very prime of his life, at fifty-one ; but what 
a life ! What heroism, what nobleness of purpose, what 
energy, what devotion to principle ! He used to say, 
" We must press on, and do what is right." Simple 
words, but worthy to be the motto of nations. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 



" r^, ENTLEMEN, I said to you it had been my fortune 

V_X to know some great men ; but the greatest man I 
have ever known is still alive." 

Thus spoke John Morley in a public address at Roch- 
dale, April 23, 1890. 

An incident recorded of the eminent statesman of 
Eochdale, John Bright, is well known. To a member of 
the aristocracy, a lady, who was opposed to Gladstone 
politically. Bright said, " Madam, has your son ever seen 
Mr. Gladstone ? " 

"No," was the reply. 

" Then take him at once to see the greatest English- 
man he is ever likely to look upon." 

William Ewart Gladstone, born at Liverpool, Decem- 
ber 29, 1809, is of Scotch descent. His grandfather, 
John Gladstone, born at Leith, was a successful corn- 
merchant and ship-owner of Liverpool, engaged in trade 
with Russia and India. William's father. Sir John 
Gladstone, was also a wealthy grain merchant of Liver- 
pool, with great strength of will and comprehensive 
mind. " Diligent in business," was his motto, which was 
as characteristic of the man, as " Industry " was of the 
first Sir Robert Peel. William E. Gladstone has never 
been ashamed of his connection, by birth, with trade. 

414 




WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 415 

He said in an address delivered at the Liverpool Col- 
legiate Institute, December 21, 1872: "I know not why 
commerce in England should not have its old families, 
rejoicing to be connected with commerce from genera- 
tion to generation. It has been so in other countries ; 
I trust it will be so in this country. I think it a subject 
of sorrow, and almost of scandal, when those families 
who have either acquired or recovered station and wealth 
through commerce, turn their backs upon it, and seem 
to be ashamed of it. It certainly is not so with my 
brother or with me. His sons are treading in his steps, 
and one of my sons, I rejoice to say, is treading in the 
steps of my father and my brother." 

Sir John Gladstone, created a baronet in 1845 by Sir 
Robert Peel, w^as in Parliament at the same time as his 
illustrious son, and must have listened with great delight 
to his son's remarkable eloquence. He died in 1851, at 
the age of eighty-eight. 

Ann Robertson, the wife of Sir John, and mother of 
William, is said to have been descended from Henry III. 
of England, and Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. She 
is described as " a lady of very great accomplishments ; of 
fascinating manners, of commanding presence, and high 
intellect ; one to grace any home and endear any heart." 
She died when her fourth son, William, was twenty-six 
years old. 

Her eldest son, Sir Thomas Gladstone, died March 20, 
1889 ; the second, John Neilson, entered the Royal 
Navy, became a member of Parliament, and died in^ 
1863 ; the third, Robertson, mayor of Liverpool, became 
the head of the mercantile house at Liverpool, and died 
in 1875 ; the two daughters, Helen Jane and Ann Mc- 
Kenzie, died unmarried, the former in 1879. 



416 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 

Young William was first sent to an academy near 
Liverpool, kept by the Rev. Mr. Jones ; and a little before 
he was twelve, in September, 1821, to Eton. Already he 
had been taught by his father to discuss the great ques- 
tions of the day, and to think for himself. 

He was an earnest, active lad, fond of sports, but 
more fond of study, and soon distinguished himself by 
his Latin versification. He helped to establish the 
''Eton Miscellany" at the school, and contributed regu- 
larly to it. He rendered a chorus from the "Hecuba" 
of Euripides, wrote a poem of two hundred and fifty 
lines on E-ichard Coeur de Lion, a paper on " Eloquence," 
another on " Ancient and Modern Genius compared," 
and many other articles. In his paper on Eloquence 
he said, in his eighteenth year, " A successful debut, an 
offer from the minister, a Secretaryship of State, and 
even the Premiership itself, are the objects which form 
the vista along which a young visionary loves to look." 

After leaving Eton, in 1827, he studied for two years 
as a private pupil of Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop of 
Calcutta, and entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 
1829. Here his industry and application were very great. 
"No matter where he was," says one writer, "whether 
in college-rooms or country mansion, from ten a. m. to 
two p. M. no one ever saw William Ewart Gladstone. 
During this interval he was invariably locked up with 
his books. From the age of eighteen until that of 
twenty-one, he never neglected studying during these 
particular hours, unless he happened to be travelling; 
and his evening ordeal was scarcely less severe. Eight 
o'clock saw him once more engaged in a stiff bout with 
Aristotle, or plunged deep in the text of Thucydides." 

" Naturally hardy and muscular," says Mr. G. R. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 417 

Emerson, in his Life of Gladstone, "he cultivated his 
bodily powers by regular active exercise, and his high 
moral nature preserved him from the temptation to 
indulge in enervating luxuriousness. Temperate and 
active, trained to muscular exertion, he could probably 
have outwalked any of the undergraduates of his college 
as easily as he could have surpassed most of them in 
mental acquirements. A brisk walk of thirty or forty 
miles was a small matter to the handsome, well-knit, 
resolute young student, who returned from it with a 
refreshed brain, and renewed vitality, to his studies." 

He became president of the Oxford Union, a debat- 
ing society, where he was on the Tory side. He gradu- 
ated in 1831, taking the highest honors of the University, 
a double-first, an unusual achievement. 

The following year, the young man, unspoiled by 
wealth, uniting the energy of his father with the sensi- 
tiveness and conscientiousness of his mother, went 
abroad Jo enlarge his mind through travel. He spent 
nearly six months in Italy, when he was recalled to 
England by the Duke of Newcastle, whose son, the 
Earl of Lincoln, was an intimate friend of young Glad- 
stone at Oxford. The Duke requested him to contest 
Newark for a seat in the House of Commons. The 
young man of twenty-two at once returned, and took an 
active part in the canvass. 

" There were in his youthful face," says George Barnett 
Smith, in his Life of the statesman, " none of those 
deep lines which have rendered his countenance so strik- 
ing in maturer years ; and one who remembers him well 
at this period describes his bright, thoughtful look, and 
attractive bearing. He was considered a handsome man, 
and possessed a most intelligent and expressive counte- 



418 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

Speaking of a picture painted at this time, Mr. Smith 
saySj " There is to be perceived the same broad, intellect- 
ual forehead, the somewhat massive and prominent nose, 
the same anxious eyes, and the earnest expression, so 
characteristic of the man upwards of a generation later.'^ 

Another writer says : " His eyes are clear and quick. 
His eyebrows are dark and rather prominent. There is 
not a dandy in the House but envies what Truefit would 
call his ^ fine head of jet-black hair.' . . . His complexion 
must be a very unworthy witness if he does not possess 
an abundant stock of health.'' 

Young Gladstone soon convinced the people of New- 
ark that he was not only an orator, but one concerned 
for the welfare of the citizens. He promised " sedulous 
and special attention to the interests of the poor, 
founded upon the rule that those who are the least able 
to take care of themselves should be most regarded by 
others. Particularly, it is a duty to endeavor by every 
means that labor may receive adequate remuneration ; 
which, unhappily, among several classes of our fellow- 
countrymen, is not now the case." 

The young man did not escape the usual ordeal of 
aspirants for office. He was called the "Duke's nomi- 
nee ; " " recommended by no claim in the world except 
the will of the Duke ; " " the slave-driver," because his 
father owned slaves in Demerara; but he worked ear- 
nestly, and won the membership for Newark. 

He spoke rarely during his first term in the House, 
and then in the most conservative manner. He defended 
his father's managers of slaves on the sugar plantations, 
and advocated a " universal and efficient system of Chris- 
tian instruction," before emancipation. " Let fitness,^^ 
he said, " be made a condition for emancipation ; and let 



WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 419 

US strive to bring him to that fitness by the shortest 
possible course." 

But Wilberforce and others knew that human nature 
could not always be trusted to give " Christian instruc- 
tion " to those in bondage, and immediate emancipation 
was decreed, to the glory of England. 

Gladstone spoke in favor of the Established Church in 
Ireland. He was opposed to Mr. Hume's Universities' 
Admission Bill, one object of which was to remove the 
necessity of pledging one's self to believe the Thirty- 
nine Articles before entering the University of Oxford. 

Mr. Gladstone said nearly a half-century later, before 
the Palmerston Club, Oxford, in December, 1878: "I 
trace in the education of Oxford of my own time one 
great defect. Perhaps it was my own fault ; but I must 
admit that I did not learn, when at Oxford, that which I 
have learned since, namely, to set a due value on the 
imperishable and the inestimable principles of human 
liberty. . . . I can only assure you, gentlemen,- that 
now I am in front of extended popular privileges, I have 
no fear of those enlargements of the Constitution that 
seem to be approaching. On the contrary, I hail them 
with desire." 

As soon as Mr. Gladstone had been elected to Parlia- 
ment, he spent eleven terms in the study of law, but 
retired from the Society of Lincoln's Inn in 1837, 
" having given up his intention of being called to the 
bar." 

On December 24, 1834, when Sir Eobert Peel became 
Prime Minister, Gladstone was made Junior Lord of the 
Treasury, and was promoted in February of the follow- 
ing year to the office of Under-Secretary for the Col- 
onies. 



420 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

This position he held only a short time, as the Peel 
administration gave place to that of Lord Melbourne. 

In 1838 Mr. Gladstone's first book was published, 
" The State in its Relations with the Church," in which 
he argues at length the advisability of maintaining the 
Established Church, and gives his reasons therefor. 

The book soon passed through four editions, and was 
warmly praised and as warmly condemned. Macaulay 
made a brilliant and able reply, in the Edinburgh Review, 
to the positions taken in the book. The Dissenters of 
course opposed the foundation principles of the volume. 

In 1840 Mr. Gladstone followed his defence of the 
union of Church and State with another volume : "Church 
Principles considered in their Results." 

All these early years Mr. Gladstone was gaining a 
name for himself in the House of Commons. He made 
a speech on Church Rates, filling thirteen columns of 
Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. He opposed imme- 
diate abolition in a speech of thirty-three columns. He 
spoke against the removal of civil disabilities from the 
Jews. Happily, in 1847, he had changed his opinions, 
and spoke in behalf of the Jews. A writer says of Mr. 
Gladstone at this time : " His gesture is varied, but not 
violent. When he rises he generally puts both his 
hands behind his back ; and having thus suffered them 
to embrace each other for a short time, he unclasps 
them, and allows them to drop on either side. They 
are not permitted to remain long in that locality before 
you see them again closed together, and hanging down 
before him. . . . He is always listened to with much 
attention by the House, and appears to be highly re- 
spected by men of all parties. He is a man of good 
business habits." 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 421 

In August, 1838, Mr. Gladstone again visited Italy, 
and explored Sicily, making the ascent of Mount Etna 
on October 30, at the commencement of the eruption of 
1838. He witnessed, and graphically describes, the erup- 
tion whereby lava masses weighing two hundred pounds 
were thrown to the distance of probably a mile and a 
half, and smaller masses much farther. 

On July 25 of the following year, 1839, Mr. Gladstone, 
tiien thirty years of age, married Miss Catherine Glynne, 
three years his junior, daughter of Sir Stephen Eichard 
Glynne, of Hawarden Castle, whose Welsh ancestry can 
be traced for more than a thousand years. Her brother, 
Sir Stephen Glynne, M.P., died unmarried in 1874, so 
that the estate was bequeathed to Mr. Gladstone for 
life, and afterwards to his eldest son. Mrs. Gladstone's 
sister. Miss Mary Glynne, was married at the same time 
and place, to Lord Lyttleton, to whom Mr. Gladstone 
dedicated " in token of sincere affection," his " Church 
Principles considered in their Results." The sisters 
were called "the handsome Miss Glynnes." Mr. Glad- 
stone, upon his marriage, made Hawarden Castle his 
home, buying a portion of the property. Here, in his 
study, much of his omnivorous reading has been accom- 
plished, and most of his many books have been written. 

The old Hawarden Castle, now a ruin, was in use in 
the wars of the Saxons and Danes, and was rebuilt in 
the time of Edward I. or II. 

The modern castle is brick, incased in gray stone, with 
many towers and battlements, and much overgrown with 
ivy. At the foot of the towers, says Mr. Edward Rose, 
in the Illustrated London News of August 3, 1889, 
"bright beds of flowers, scarlet, blue, and gold, sparkle 
in the sun against lawns of .srrass ; and trees of all grreens 



422 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 

stand round, from lightest of green leaves to sombre 
hollies. . . . Everything is old-fashioned, quiet, and 
comfortable. . . . Nothing could be simpler than Mrs. 
Gladstone's own living-room, bright and sunny, yellow- 
walled, flower-scented, with an outlook from its wide 
windows upon the lawn. It is hung with old pictures, 
and in a case by the wall are many presents to Mrs. 
Gladstone from cities which she has visited." 

The library is a southern room, in white and gold, 
wdth family portraits on the walls. Mr. Gladstone reads 
in several languages, Greek, Latin, French, German, and 
especially Italian, and has a wonderful memory ; so well 
cultivated that he retains what he reads. He believes 
the golden age of literature is to Come. In " Books and 
the Housing of Them," he says : " Whatever may be the 
present rate of growth, it is small with what it is likely 
to become. 

"The key of the question lies in the hands of the 
United Kingdom and the United States jointly. In this 
matter there rests upon these two powers no small re- 
sponsibility. They, with their vast range of inhabited 
territory, and their unity of tongue, are masters of the 
world, which will have to do as they do. 

"When the Britons and Americans are fused into one 
book market ; when it is recognized that letters, which 
as to their material and their aim are a high-soaring pro- 
fession, as to their mere remuneration are a trade ; when 
artificial fetters are relaxed, and printers, publishers, and 
authors obtain the reward which well-regulated commerce 
would afford them, then let floors beware lest they crack, 
and walls lest they bulge and burst, from the weight of 
books they will have to carry and to confine." 

Mr. Gladstone's study is called " the Temple of 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 423 

Peace," because here the author and thinker must have 
quiet. Books abound in cases built on each side of this 
room. About 15,000 are here and in the library. These 
volumes are loaned to neighbors, the names of borrowers 
being entered in a book kept for that purpose. 

The walls above the books are of a deep red, with 
white plaques here and there. Here are busts of Cob- 
den, Spurgeon, John Bright, Canning, Beaconsfield, and 
a portrait in relief of Tennyson. 

Three writing-tables are in this Temple of Peace, One 
is used for political and business correspondence, one for 
literary work, and a third is Mrs. Gladstone's. In a safe 
embedded in the wall, is kept carefully filed all of Mr. 
Gladstone's correspondence for years. When in office, 
four secretaries open his letters ; when out of office, he 
has but one secretary. The writers to whom Mr. Glad- 
stone declares himself most indebted are St. Augustine, 
Bishop Butler, Dante, and Aristotle. Of course he does 
not ferget Homer. 

The room adjoining the " Temple of Peace " is a room 
containing two pianos and an organ. Mr. Gladstone is 
said to play well on the piano, and is especially fond of 
ballads and Scotch airs. 

A park of about two hundred and fifty acres surrounds 
Hawarden Castle. Oaks, beeches, and sycamores abound. 
A pretty stream, Broughton Brook, runs through the 
valley, 

Mr, Gladstone usually works in the morning, after at- 
tending prayers at the church near by ; walks for an hour 
after luncheon ; and often from three to four for exercise 
uses his axe in cutting down trees, not sound ones, but 
such as need to be removed, for he is a lover of trees as 
he is of books. He rarely drives, and does not hunt or 
fish. 



424 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

When Sir Eobert Peel became Prime Minister for the 
second time in 1841, Mr. Gladstone was appointed Vice- 
President of the Board of Trade, and Master of the 
Mint. Here the young statesman began more than ever 
before to show his power. 

The discussion of the repeal of the Corn Laws was 
rapidly increasing. The country was in great financial 
distress. Peel realized that articles of consumption could 
not bear a higher tax, and determined to reduce indirect 
taxation, and raise money by a tax of seven pence on 
the pound on incomes of one hundred and fifty pounds 
and upwards. Out of twelve hundred duty-paying arti- 
cles there was a reduction or abolition of duty on about 
seven hundred and fifty. This tariff revision was al- 
most entirely the work of Gladstone. 

In 1843 Gladstone became president of the Board of 
Trade, filling the vacancy made by the death of the 
Earl of Bipon. He introduced and carried several im- 
portant measures, among them one abolishing the re- 
strictions on the exportation of machinery, and another, 
a comprehensive Eailway Bill. One clause of the bill 
which was of great benefit to the poor " provided that 
at least one train on every week-day should start from 
each end of the line to carry passengers in covered car- 
riages for one penny per mile ; . . . that they should 
stop to take up and set down passengers at every sta- 
tion ; . . . and that children under three years of age 
should be conveyed in such trains without charge, and 
those under twelve at half price." 

In 1845 Mr. Gladstone resigned his position in the 
cabinet, on account of Peel's Maynooth College endow- 
ment in Ireland, because in opposition to his expressed 
views on the relations of Church and State. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 425 

Gladstone took office again under Peel in 1846, as 
Colonial and War Secretary. Like Peel, he had been a 
Protectionist, and, like him, had become an ardent con- 
vert to Free Trade. He retired from the Protectionist 
borough of Newark, and after ^ most exciting contest, 
was elected to represent his alma mater, Oxford Uni- 
versity, in 1847. 

The winter of 1850 Mr. Gladstone spent in Italy, on 
account of the illness of a very young daughter. With 
an especial fondness for that country, he could not sit 
idly by and witness the despotic cruelty of Ferdinand 
the Second, in jSTaples. 

The people of Sicily, united against their will with 
Naples, revolted, and deposed Ferdinand. He recon- 
quered them, and then proceeded to destroy all yearn- 
ings for liberty, by the sword, by fire, and by the 
imprisonment of those who desired a constitutional 
government. Twenty thousand of his subjects were in 
the ^ungeons of Naples. Men were carried to prison 
without trial, and hunted like wild animals. 

Mr. Gladstone visited these prisons, and in the name 
of humanity wrote the particulars to Lord Aberdeen. 
These letters are now to be read in the fourth of the 
seven volumes of " Gleanings of Past Years." He de- 
scribed the filth, the chains, the horror, of these prisons, 
where leading statesmen were confined year after year ; 
" the official doctors not going to the sick prisoners, but 
the sick prisoners, men almost with death on their faces, 
toiling up-stairs to them at that charnel-house of the 
Vicaria, because the lower regions of such a palace of 
darkness are too foul and loathsome to allow it to be 
expected that professional men should consent to earn 
bread by entering them." 



426 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

Carlo Poerio, a prominent member of the Neapolitan 
Parliament, a man of great talents, was confined with 
sixteen others in a cell, where, " when their beds were let 
down at night, there was no space whatever between 
them; they could only get out at the foot, and, being 
chained two and two, only in pairs. . . . Each man wears 
a strong leather girth round him above the hips. In 
this are secured the upper ends of two chains. One chain 
of four long and heavy links descends to a kind of double 
ring fixed round the ankle. The second chain consists 
of eight links, each of the same weight and length with 
the four, and this unites the two prisoners together, so 
that they can stand about six feet apart. Neither of 
these chains is ever undone day or night." . . . 

These letters raised a cry of indignation throughout 
Europe. Lord Palmerston sent copies of the letters to 
be laid before each government, that the evils of abso- 
lute rule might be remedied. Of course, harsh and viru- 
lent replies were returned to the letters, by those in the 
interest of King Ferdinand. 

While much of the severity to prisoners was mitigated 
at the time through public opinion, in the end Italy was 
helped to a liberal constitution. The world learned 
through Ferdinand, and Gladstone has helped the people 
to learn it, that it is not safe to trust any human being 
with absolute power. Siberian prisons in our day have 
verified the same truth. 

When Lord Aberdeen became Prime Minister at the 
close of 1852, Gladstone was made Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, and introduced his first budget April 18, 
1853, in the House of Commons. For five hours he han- 
dled matters of finance and taxes with the greatest skill 
and eloquence, the audience listening spell-bound. His 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 427 

command of language never for a second failed him, but 
with fluency and grace, as well as grasp of mind, the 
orator showed his consummate statesmanship. More than 
ever he was looked upon as the man in whose hands 
England's greatness would be secure for the future ; a 
financier equal to, if not surpassing. Peel. He proposed 
to retain the income tax for one year, gradually dimin- 
ishing it till it should disappear in 1860. He reduced 
over one hundred and thirty taxes, the total amount of 
remissions estimated at over five millions. His scheme 
for the reduction of the national debt, which had so 
increased under William Pitt, was most acceptable to the 
country. 

Gladstone was opposed to the Crimean War, for hu- 
manitarian as well as national reasons. It was a costly 
measure, it added to the burdens of the people, and Rus- 
sia was not to him, as to some English statesmen, a con- 
stant fear and menace. While the people clamored for 
war, he was not afraid to be on the unpopular side. 
When they talked of the necessity for humbling Russia, 
he said : " All the terms we had demanded had been sub- 
stantially conceded, and if it was not for terms we fought, 
but for military success, let the House look at the senti- 
ment with the eye of reason, and it would appear immoral, 
inhuman, and unchristian. If the war continued in 
order to obtain military glory, we should tempt Him in 
whose hands was the fate of armies, to launch upon us 
His wrath." 

In the autumn of 1858 Mr. Gladstone was appointed 
by the Earl of Derby, then Prime Minister, to the posi- 
tion of Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary to the 
Ionian Islands, which, though under the protection of 
England, wished to unite Avith Greece. This Gladstone 



428 WILLIA3I ElVART GLADSTONE. 

favored, as being the will of the people. The union was 
consummated in 1864. 

Mr. Gladstone Avas appropriately chosen for this mis- 
sion. From early life, he has been a devoted student of 
the ancient Greeks. Homer has been his delight and 
his almost daily companion. In 1858 he had already 
published his " Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age,'' 
in three large volumes. 

Edward A. Freeman says of these volumes : " As the 
work of one of our first orators and statesmen, they are 
altogether wonderful. Not, indeed, that Mr. Gladstone's 
two characters of scholar and statesman have done aught 
but help and strengthen one another. . . . What strikes 
one more than anything else throughout Mr. Gladstone's 
volumes is the intense earnestness, the loftiness of moral 
purpose, which breathes in every page." 

" Like the sun," says Mr. Gladstone, " which furnishes 
with its light the close courts and alleys of London, 
while himself unseen by their inhabitants, Homer has 
supplied with the illumination of his ideas, millions of 
minds that were never brought into direct contact with 
his works, and even millions more that have hardly been 
aware of his existence." 

Mr. Gladstone three years later, in 1861, published in 
conjunction with Lord Lyttleton, a volume of transla- 
tions from the Iliad, the Agamemnon of ^schylus, and 
the Odes of Horace. In reviewing this volume the Edin- 
burgh Revieiv said, " In translating poetry of a high 
class, Gladstone takes rank, beyond the possibility of 
controversy, in the forefront of the very best translators.'^ 
, Many books have appeared from Mr. Gladstone's pen, 
along the line of Homeric study : " Juventus Mundi : 
Gods and Men of the Heroic Age in Greece," in 1869 ; 



WILLI A3£ EWART GLADSTONE. 429 

<' Homeric Synchronism " in 1876; and " Landmarks of 
Homeric Study " as recently as 1890 ; besides various 
essays in the leading magazines, and a preface to Dr. 
Schliemann's " Mycenae." Gladstone believes that the site 
of Troy, or Ilium, was discovered by Dr. Schliemann, 
when he excavated the hill of Hissarlik, in 1871-73. 

The farewell address as Lord Eector of the University 
of Edinburgh, given by Mr. Gladstone, November 3, 1865, 
is a scholarly address on the " Place of Ancient Greece 
in the Providential Order." No one can read it without 
a desire for deeper study, and a reverence for much 
which the polished present era seems to have lost. 

" When we are seeking," says Mr. Gladstone, " to 
ascertain the measure of that conception which any given 
race has formed of our nation, there is perhaps no single 
test so effective as the position which it assigns to woman. 
. . . The emancipation and due ascendency of woman are 
not a mere fact : they are the emphatic assertion of a prin- 
ciple ; and that principle is the dethronement of the law 
of force, and the enthronement of other and higher laws 
in its place, and in its despite." 

In 1859 Mr. Gladstone, on his return from Greece, 
again became Chancellor of the Exchequer, under Lord 
Palmerston. The budget, or financial statement of 1860, 
given in a four-hours speech, held the closest attention 
of a packed House. 

This year, 1860, when Mr. Gladstone was installed Lord 
E-ector of Edinburgh University, he said to the students : 
..." Believe me, when I tell you that the thrift of time 
will repay you in after life with an usury of profit be- 
yond your most sanguine dreams, and that the waste of 
it will make you dwindle, alike in intellectual and in 
moral stature, beneath your darkest reckonings." 



430 WILLIA3£ ElVART GLADSTONE. 

He encouraged those who are fighting the battle of 
life : " When they are for a moment disheartened by 
that difficulty which is the rude and rocking cradle of 
every kind of excellence ; when they are conscious of 
the pinch of poverty and self-denial, — let them be con- 
scious, too, that a sleepless Eye is watching them from 
above ; that their honest efforts are assisted, their 
humble prayers are heard, and all things are working 
together for their good. . . . 

" Gentlemen, the hope of an enduring fame is without 
doubt a powerful incentive to virtuous action; and you 
may suffer it to float before you as a vision of refresh- 
ment, second always, and second with a long interval 
between, to your conscience and to the will of Grod. . . . 
The thirst of an enduring fame is near akin to the love 
of true excellence. But the fame of the moment is a 
dangerous possession and a bastard motive." 

In 1862 Mr. Gladstone made a visit to the North of 
England, speaking in various towns. At New Castle-on- 
Tyne, a banquet was given in his honor. Trade was 
paralyzed by the American Civil War, and naturally all 
were eager to hear what the eloquent statesman would 
say on the subject. He commended the patience of the 
operatives in their long suffering; and, referring to the 
Southern Confederacy, said that Jefferson Davis and 
the other leaders of the South, had made an army, a 
navy, and a nation. "We may anticipate with certainty 
the success of the Southern States, so far as regards 
their separation from the North." 

Mr. Gladstone frankly acknowledged his mistake, in a 
letter to a correspondent in New York in August, 1867. 
" I must confess," he wrote, " that I was wrong ; that I 
took too much upon myself in expressing such an opin- 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 431 

ion ; yet the motive was not bad. My sympathies were 
then where they had long before been, where they are 
now, — with the whole American people." He opposed, 
in an eloquent speech, Mr. Roebuck's motion asking that 
the Queen act with other great powers " in the recogni- 
tion of the Confederate States of North America." 

Speaking of our calamitous war, Gladstone said in 
1884: "The convulsion of that country between 1861 
and 1865 was perhaps the most frightful which ever 
assailed a national existence. The efforts which were 
made on both sides were marked. The exertions, by 
which alone the movement was put down, were not only 
extraordinary, they were what antecedently would have 
been called impossible ; and they were only rendered 
possible by the fact that they proceeded from a nation 
where every capable citizen was enfranchised, and had a 
direct and an energetic interest in the well-being and the 
unity of the state." 

That Mr. Gladstone has the highest admiration and 
regard for America, is shown by his " Kin Beyond Sea," 
published in the North American Review for September, 
1878. Speaking of America he says : " It is she alone 
who, at a coming time, can and probably will wrest from 
us that commercial primacy. We have no title, I have no 
inclination, to murmur at the prospect. If she acquires 
it, she will make the acquisition by the right of the 
strongest ; but in this instance, the strongest means the 
best. She will probably become what we are now, — 
the head servant in the great household of the world, 
the employer of all employed ; because her service will 
be the most and ablest. . . . 

" She is the eldest born. She has, taking the capacity 
of her land into view as well as its mere measurement, 



432 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever 
established by man. . . . The England and the America 
of the present are probably the two strongest nations of 
the world. . . . But all this pompous detail of material 
triumphs, whether for the one or for the other, is worse 
than idle, unless the men of the two countries shall 
remain or shall become greater than the mere things 
that they produce, and shall know how to regard those 
things simply as tools and materials for the attainment 
of the highest purposes of their being." 

In 1865 Mr. Gladstone was defeated at Oxford Uni- 
versity. He was known to be in favor of an extended 
franchise, and to have broadened his views on the dis- 
establishment of the Irish Church. The Liberals were 
overjoyed that at last Gladstone, as he himself said, was 
"unmuzzled." He was no longer bound by the aristo- 
cratic and conservative Oxford. 

He accepted his defeat without bitterness, saying: "I 
have endeavored to serve that University with my whole 
heart, and with the strength or weakness of whatever 
faculties God has given me. . . . Long has she borne 
with me; long, in spite of active opposition, did she 
resist every effort to displace me." 

Mr. Gladstone was returned to Parliament from South 
Lancashire. As in 1832, the people were demanding an 
extension of the suffrage. Gladstone was abreast of the 
age. " It is to be desired," he said, " that all those who 
live in a country should take an interest in that coun- 
try, — should love that country. One of the means of 
fostering such an interest, and such a love, is to invest 
them with a share in affairs common to others with 
themselves." He spoke of America as a country which 
prospered under a general suffrage, — " where," said he. 



WILLIA3I EWART GLADSTONE. 433 

" throughout the vast territory there is not a man who is 
not loyal to the Constitution." He has said of our Con- 
stitution that it is, " so far as I can see, the most wonder- 
ful work ever struck off, at a given time, by the brain 
and purpose of man." 

In an impassioned address, Mr. Gladstone said: "We 
are told that the working-classes do not agitate for an 
extension of the franchise ; but is it desirable that we 
should wait until they do agitate ? In my opinion, 
agitation by the working-classes, upon any political 
subject whatever, is a thing not to be waited for, not 
to be made a condition previous to any Parliamentary 
movement ; but, on the contrary, it is a thing to be 
deprecated, and, if possible, anticipated and prevented 
by wise and provident measures. ... I venture to say 
that every man who is not presumably incapacitated by 
some consideration of personal unfitness, or of political 
danger, is morally entitled to come within the pale of 
the Constitution." 

In March of 186G Gladstone introduced the new Re- 
form Bill, by which the franchise would be extended to 
about 400,000 new voters. It met with the fiercest 
opposition. Some members of the House spoke scorn- 
fully of " maudlin enthusiasm for humanity ! " The 
controversy raged night after night in the House of 
Commons. Gladstone and Bright spoke with all their 
fire and persuasion. Gladstone declared of himself and 
his party : " We have passed the Rubicon — we have 
broken the bridge, and burned the boats behind us. 
We have advisedly cut off the means of retreat; and 
having done this, we hope that, as far as time is yet per- 
mitted, we have done our duty to the Crown and to the 
nation." . . . 



434 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

One who heard the speech said, of that exciting night 
of debate : " It was twilight brightening into day, when 
w^e got out into the welcome fresh air of New Palace 
Yard. ... It was a night long to be remembered. The 
House of Commons had listened to the grandest oration 
ever yet delivered by the greatest orator of his age.'' 

Mr. Bright said of Gladstone : " Who is there in the 
House of Commons who equals him in knowledge of all 
political questions ? Who equals him in earnestness ? 
Who equals him in eloquence ? Who equals him in 
courage and fidelity to his convictions ? " 

The Government was defeated on the Eeform Bill, 
and Mr. Gladstone's position of Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer was taken by his rival Disraeli. The riots in 
Hyde Park, the great gatherings in Birmingham and 
other towns, the wild cry of the masses for the passage 
of the Reform Bill, led Benjamin Disraeli to give to 
England, in 1867, household suffrage. Many of the best 
things in this bill were the work of Mr. Gladstone. 

Now that the Eeform Bill was passed, the great 
question agitating the country was the disestablishment 
of the Irish Church. Mr. Gladstone, who had once been 
the most powerful advocate of the Establishment, now 
saw the condition of Ireland in her hatred of an alien 
church, which she was obliged to help support. 

In 1861 the population of Ireland was 5,788,415. 
The members of the Established Church numbered 
693,357, or less than one-eighth of the total population ; 
Avhile the members of the Roman Catholic Church num- 
bered 4,205,265, or ten out of every thirteen of the 
population. 

"The Church of a small minority," says Mr. G. P. 
Macdonell, in " Two Centuries of Irish History," " com- 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 435 

prising the most prosperous inhabitants of Ireland, thus 
received an annual subsidy of more than a million ster- 
ling, while the rest of the people were left to provide 
for their own religious wants." 

In the latter part of March, 1868, Mr. Gladstone 
astonished the Conservatives by his declaration, ''That 
in the opinion of this House it is necessary that the 
Established Church of Ireland should cease to exist as 
an establishment." 

In a brilliant speech he said : " If we are prudent men, 
I hope we shall endeavor, as far as in us lies, to make 
some provision for a contingent, a doubtful, and prob- 
ably a dangerous future. If we be chivalrous men, I 
trust we shall endeavor to wipe away all those stains 
which the civilized world has for ages seen, or seemed 
to see, on the shield of England in her treatment of 
Ireland. . . . But, above all, if we be just men, we shall 
go forward in the name of truth and right, bearing this 
in mind — that, when the case is proved, and the hour 
is come, justice delayed is justice denied." 

Gladstone and his project met with the strongest con- 
demnation. It was charged that when at Rome, being 
a Roman Catholic at heart, he had made arrangements 
with the Pope to destroy the Established Church in 
Ireland. He was called "a traitor to the Queen, his 
country, and his God ; " some persons hoped he would 
be "perpetually excluded from power for having dared 
to put his hand on the ark of God," and others would 
have liked to see him " hanging as high as Haman." 

An appeal to the country was made on the Irish 
Church question ; the Liberals won a majority, and 
Gladstone became Prime Minister in December, 1868, a 
few days before he had reached his fifty-ninth year. 



436 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

On March 1 Mr. Gladstone • spoke for three hours on 
the Irish Church Act, the House being crowded to its 
utmost capacity, people waiting for hours to obtain a 
seat, and great numbers standing outside, anxious to be 
told the progress of events. 

Mr. Gladstone detailed with his surpassing eloquence 
the provisions of the Act ; the Irish Church to become 
a free Episcopal Church ; the Irish bishops to lose their 
seats in the House of Lords ; the Maynooth Grant to be 
commuted; the clergy and officials to be compensated 
for their life-interest ; the remaining funds to be applied 
to the relief of unavoidable suffering. 

" For my part," he said, in closing his speech, " I am 
deeply convinced that when the final consummation 
shall arrive, and when the words are spoken that shall 
give the force of law to the work embodied in this 
measure — the work of peace and justice — those words 
will be echoed upon every shore where the name of Ire- 
land or the name of Great Britain has been heard, and 
the answer to them will come back in the approving 
verdict of civilized mankind." 

The Act received the royal assent on July 26. It had 
excited more controversy than any bill since that of 
Eeform in 1832, and was, says the Annual Register for 
1869, "the most remarkable legislative achievement of 
modern times." 

Mr. Gladstone said in 1874 : " I must say I do not 
repent the part I took. So far from repenting it, if I 
am to have a character with posterity at all — supposing 
that posterity is ever to know that such a person as 
myself existed in this country — I am perfectly willing 
that my character should be tried simply and solely 
by the proceedings to which I was a part}^ with regard 
to the Irish Church Establishment." 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 437 

The results of disestablishment have been admirable, 



both in the better spirit engendered in Ireland, and in 
the wise disposition of funds. " Out of the surplus," 
says Mr. Macdonell, '-Parliament has appropriated to 
intermediate education in Ireland, £1,000,000 ; to a 
pension fund for national school teachers, £1,300,000; 
for distress works, £1,271,500 ; under the Arrears 
for Eent Act, 1882, £950,000; and for sea-fisheries, 
£250,000.'^ 

A great work had been begun for Ireland ; and from 
that time Gladstone has never ceased in his one grand 
purpose, " to use every effort to remove what still re- 
mains of the scandals and calamities in the relations 
which exist between England and Ireland, and to make 
our best efforts at least to fill up with the cement 
of human concord the noble fabric of the British 
Empire." 

On February 15, 1870, Mr. Gladstone, in a three-hours' 
speeeb, introduced his Irish Land Act before a crowded 
House. The land of Ireland was owned by compara- 
tively few landlords. 

The tenants were so eager for land, as this was their 
only means of living, that they would offer more than 
they could possibly pay for it. " They had no interest 
in being industrious and improving their land. If they 
improved the patch of soil they worked on, their rent 
was almost certain to be raised, or they were turned out 
of the land without receiving a farthing of compensation 
for their improvements." 

In Ulster the tenant-right system prevailed. It was 
the custom in that part of Ireland to allow a tenant to 
remain on the land as long as he paid his rent, and, 
on giving up the land, to receive compensation for 



438 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

the improvements which he had made, and to have the 
liberty to sell the "good-will" of his farm in the 
market. 

Lord Palmerston had declared that "tenant-right is 
landlord's wrong," and England had thus far seemed to 
be of his opinion. " Has not a man a right to do with 
his own land, as he chooses ? " was constantly asked. 
And it was answered as the better portion of the world 
is coming to answer most questions. A landlord or 
employer of labor may do what he likes with his own, 
if he does not thereby injure society. When he injures 
his fellow-men, then the state should interfere for the 
well-being of its members. 

Ireland was growing into pauperism and crime by 
insecurity of land tenure, and high rents. By Mr. 
Gladstone's Land Bill, the Ulster tenant-right became 
legal in other parts of Ireland ; the tenant, disturbed in 
the possession of his land, could claim compensation for 
his improvements ; facilities were given for the loan by 
government of two-thirds of the purchase-money to 
tenants desirous of buying their holdings, where land- 
lords were willing to sell. About three hundred amend- 
ments were offered to the Land Bill ; but it finally passed 
the Lords and Commons, and became a law in August. 

In the following year, 1871, the Army Eegulation 
Bill was passed, whereby the purchase system for offi- 
cers' commissions was abolished. The usual rule was 
for an officer to buy his commission, and his promotion 
was obtained in the same way. Money, rather than 
merit, gave the place of honor. The noble Havelock 
stated that three sots and two fools had purchased over 
him, and that " if he had no family to support he would 
not serve another hour." The bill fixed a day after 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 439 

which no pecuniary interest would be taken by any one 
in any new commission. The measure was opposed as 
a " sop to democracy," and was defeated by the Lords, 
whereupon the Queen, by advice of Mr. Gladstone, can- 
celled the royal warrant under which purchase was legal. 
The House of Lords censured Mr. Gladstone, but the 
country sustained him in this honest endeavor to make 
the army of England efficient. 

Mr. Gladstone and his party were blamed because they 
accepted the results of the Arbitration Tribunal at 
Geneva, and paid to America over three million pounds 
for the Alabama depredations. They were called the 
"peace at any price" party, and accused of "disgracing 
the British flag." It would seem at this day, when pride 
and passion have cooled, that both nations must honor 
the man who helped to avert war between England and 
America. 

"Both," says Dr. J. L. M. Curry, in his study of 
Gladstone published in 1891, "speak our noble English 
tongue in its freedom, its dignity, its massive simpli- 
city, and have the richest, purest, most varied literature 
the world is blessed with ; . . . both are guardians of 
trial by jury, and of an unmolested home ; both have 
the common law, an independent judiciary, universal 
education, equality of citizenship before the law, an un- 
chained English Bible ; both are asylums for the op- 
pressed, refuges for the weary ; . . . both whiten every 
sea with their flags, are daring, enterprising, adventur- 
ous ; both have carried Christianity to the uttermost 
ends of the earth." 

Gladstone has always been a lover of peace rather 
than war. When alarmists have talked about increase 
of armies, and the fear of loss of power, he has said : 



440 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 

" The power of this country is not declining. ... It is 
only our pride, it is only our passions, it is only our 
follies, which can ever constitute a real danger to us. 
If we can master these, no other foe can hurt us ; and 
many a long year will make its round, and many a gen- 
eration of men will be gathered to its fathers, before 
the country in which we are born, and which we deeply 
love, need forfeit or lose its place among the nations of 
the world." 

Disraeli was constantly using all his power of invec- 
tive and satire against the Liberal Government. " Un- 
der his influence and at his instance," said Disraeli of 
Gladstone, "we have legalized confiscation, consecrated 
sacrilege, and condoned high treason ; we have destroyed 
churches, we have shaken property to its foundation, and 
have emptied jails." 

Gladstone, in 1873, introduced his Irish University 
Bill, and was defeated. Disraeli became Prime Minister 
in 1874, and in the following year Gladstone resigned 
his position as leader of the Liberal party. He had 
been in public life forty-two years, and was glad to vary 
his labors for a time by literary pursuits. 

In 1874 he wrote an article on "Ritualism," in the 
October number of the Contemporajy Review, which 
occasioned much adverse comment. This was followed 
within a month by his pamphlet on " The Vatican De- 
crees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance : a Political 
Expostulation." 

His propositions were : " 1. That Rome has substituted 
for the proud boast of semjjer eadem a policy of violence 
and change in faith. 2. That she has refurbished and 
paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought 
to have disused. 3. That no one can now become her 



WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 441 

convert without renouncing his moral and mental free- 
dom, and placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy 
of another. 4. That Rome has equally repudiated mod- 
ern thought and ancient history." 

He showed the effects of the doctrine of Papal infalli- 
bility, and its danger to the State. 

The pamphlet on " The Vatican Decrees " attained in 
a few weeks the enormous circulation of one hundred 
and twenty thousand copies. Eeplies came from every 
source, — from Cardinal Newman, Cardinal Manning, 
Monsignor Capel, and scores of others high in authority. 
The Italian journals expressed their astonishment, and 
hoped that Mr. Gladstone would eventually come into 
the "true Church." 

Three months after this Mr. Gladstone wrote a second 
pamphlet, entitled "Vaticanism : an Answer to Eeproofs 
and Replies ; " also a criticism on the speeches of Pope 
Pius IX., in the Quarterly Review for January, 1875. 

1876 found Europe agitated over the old subject of 
Turkish oppression and the revolt of her embittered 
subjects. The Herzegovinians had gained a victory 
over the Turks, but the Bulgarian villages had been 
literally wiped out by the cruel Bashi-Bazouks. Sixty 
villages had been destroyed, while thousands of innocent 
men, women, and children had been massacred. At 
Botak, where twelve hundred persons took refuge in a 
church, the Bashi-Bazouks tore off the tiles from the 
roof, and threw burning pieces of wood and rags dipped 
in petroleum upon the crowded mass of human beings. 
At last the doors were forced open, and the inside of the 
church burnt. Hardly a person escaped. The Turkish 
leader for this brutality received the Order of Medjidie. 
The government of Disraeli was doing nothing to save 



442 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

the Christian provinces, bub vainly hoped that Mohamme- 
dan Turkey would reform. Whenever England thought 
of coercing Turkey, the " Russian spectre " appeared on 
the horizon, and the " balance of power " stifled the sym- 
pathy for the oppressed. 

Gladstone forgot his Homer and the Vatican decrees in 
his indignation at the deeds of the Turks. He pub- 
lished a pamphlet entitled " Bulgarian Horrors and the 
Question of the East." He urged self-government for 
the Christian provinces. He would say to the Turks, 
"You shall receive a reasonable tribute ; you shall retain 
your titular sovereignty ; your empire shall not be in- 
vaded ; but never again while the years roll their course, 
so far as it is in our power to determine, never again 
shall the hand of violence be raised by you ; never 
again shall the dire refinements of cruelty be devised 
by you for the sake of making mankind miserable in 
Bulgaria." 

He urged that Russia and England should act in con- 
cord. " Their power is immense," he said. " The power 
of Russia by land for acting upon these countries as 
against Turkey is perfectly resistless ; the power of Eng- 
land by sea is scarcely less important at this moment." 

Gladstone spoke at great meetings in various parts of 
England and in the House of Commons. 

Russia finally declared war against Turkey, and de- 
feated the latter at Kars and Plevna. 

Peace and the self-government of the Christian prov- 
inces was finally secured by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. 

The next year, in the autumn of 1879, Mr. Gladstone, 
at the invitation of the Liberal electors, decided to con- 
test the metropolitan county of Scotland, Midlothian, 
which had long been represented in Parliament by the 



WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 443 

Buccleuch family ; Lord Dalkeith, tlie son of the great 
Duke of Buccleuch, being then in power. 

The canvass was one of the most memorable in the 
history of English politics. On his way to Scotland from 
Hawarden, Mr. Gladstone received a perfect ovation. 
Thousands were gathered at every station. He spoke 
every day and every evening to vast audiences, often 
numbering more than twenty thousand persons. 

Mr. George W. Smalley, in his " London Letters," 
gives a graphic description of Gladstone's arrival in 
Edinburgh : " The train reached Edinburgh at twenty 
minutes past five. It was quite dark. The Waverley 
Station is nothing more than the prolongation of a 
tunnel. . . . The public had been excluded, and only 
a favored few — say five or six thousand — admitted by 
ticket. . . . The people collected about the station and 
along the streets through which Mr. Gladstone was to 
drive, by tens of thousands. 

"Lord Eosebery's carriage and four, with two out- 
riders and a small army of liveried footmen," were wait- 
ing to take Mr. Gladstone to Dalraeny Park, Lord 
Rosebery's residence, five miles distant. For the whole 
length of that magnificent street, Gladstone stood bare- 
headed and bowed his acknowledgments. 

Everywhere the streets were arched with flowers, and 
flags were waving. Everywhere the man of seventy 
years spoke with all the fire and fervor of youth. 

At Waverley Market twenty thousand persons Avere 
gathered. They had waited for three hours while Mr. 
Gladstone was speaking in the Exchange. "At every 
movement in one direction or another," says Mr. 
Smalley, "one of those currents which begin no one 
knows how, which are like the movement of a tide, and 



444 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 

just as irresistible, passed through and along the hall. 
Men went down under the pressure, and were picked up 
breathless. At every moment somebody with a white 
face and rigid body was handed over the heads of his 
comrades, and deposited in some protected enclosure. 
Water was eagerly called for. Men who had not suf- 
fered from the movement fainted from the heat and 
long fatigue." 

When Mr. Gladstone appeared, " pain and weariness 
were forgotten in the joy of the people at the sight of 
their hero. It is useless to attempt to describe the ex- 
plosion of delight with which he was greeted. It was 
a prolonged, hoarse cry, taken up again and again, im- 
mense vibrations of sound sweeping through the air, 
broken, inarticulate, but full of eloquence. ... It was 
only when Mr. Gladstone rose, and had stood silent 
for some minutes, that silence fell upon the multitude. 
The first note of that marvellous voice rose like the peal 
of an organ." 

During this visit to Scotland, Mr. Gladstone was 
chosen Lord Eector of Glasgow University. To the 
students he said in his address, after urging them to a 
deeper study of Christianity : " Be assured that every 
one of you, without exception, has his place and voca- 
tion on this earth, and that it rests with himself to find 
it. Do not believe those who, too lightly, say that noth- 
ing succeeds like success ; effort, gentlemen, honest, 
manful, humble effort, succeeds by its reflected action 
upon character, especially in youth, better than success. 
Success, indeed, too easily and too early gained, not 
seldom serves, like winning the first throw of the dice, 
to blind and stupefy. 

" Get knowledge, all you can. ... 



WILLIAM EWATtT GLADSTONE. 445 

"Be thorougli in all you do, and remember that, 
though ignorance often may be innocent, pretension is 
always despicable. Quit you like men, be strong, and 
the exercise of your strength to-day will give you 
strength to-morrow. Work onwards and work up- 
wards." 

Mr. Gladstone was elected for Midlothian, and his 
son Herbert for Leeds, in the general election of 1880. 
The Liberals were triumphant. At once Beaconsfield 
resigned, and Gladstone became Prime Minister. 

His first efforts were directed towards improving the 
condition of Ireland. After the Land Bill of 1870 
was passed, famines were frequent, and the distress 
among the peasants was overwhelming. By the bill, 
only those evicted tenants who had paid rent were en- 
titled to compensation for their improvements. The 
majority could not pay rent, and were therefore turned 
out of their homes. In 1880 over two thousand fami- 
liesjvere evicted; in 1881 and also in 1882 the number 
of evictions was much greater. 

Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., in his "Parnell Move- 
ment," gives an interesting case of eviction; that of 
Michael McGrath. The man had held for years a farm 
at a rent of forty-eight pounds, which had been raised 
to one hundred and five pounds. He was evicted, and 
his house, built by himself or his father, was occupied 
by another farmer, Cornelius Mangan. But the eviction 
was not effected without a struggle. 

Each day as the evicting party came to the house, 
McGrath and his family poured boiling water upon 
them. The family were watched so closely that they 
were finally obliged to surrender for lack of food and 
water. 



446 WILLIAM ElVART GLADSTONE. 

After being turned out, McGratli went back to his 
farm, and was sent to prison. Then his wife went back, 
and his sister and others of the family, and each in turn 
was arrested. 

At last he got a boat, turned it upside down, and lived 
under it with his family, till, through exposure to the 
weather, he died of t3^phus fever. His neighbors then 
built a small house for his widow and her children. 

As a result of these evictions the feeling against the 
landlords was hostile in the extreme. Murders were 
committed, cattle were mutilated, people starved and 
died along the roadside. 

In October, 1879, the Irish National Land League had 
been formed, one of the prime movers being Mr. 
Michael Davitt, the son of an evicted tenant. He had 
been turned out of his home when four years of age, 
and his father and mother had to beg through the streets 
of England for bread. He lost his right arm in a mill, 
was engaged in the Fenian movement, and was sen- 
tenced to fifteen years penal servitude. After nearly 
eight years, he was released, visited America, and re- 
turned to Ireland to help his people in their poverty 
and burden of rent. 

Another who helped to start the new organization was 
Charles Stewart Parnell, descended from Sir John 
Parnell, a leader in the Irish House of Commons, on his 
father's side, and the grandson on his mother's side 
of Commodore Charles Stewart, commander of the ship 
"Constitution," in the war of 1812. Educated at Cam- 
bridge University, as his father had been, and inherit- 
ing from his American mother, as well as from his Irish 
father, a love of liberty and of justice, he early entered 
Parliament, and became an ardent worker for Ireland. 



WILLIA2f EWART GLADSTONE. 447 

The objects of tlie Land League were to bring about 
a reduction of rack-rents, and to aid the occupiers to 
obtain ownership of the soil. Mr. Parnell was made 
president of this League. He went to America and 
raised seventy-two thousand pounds for the relief of 
those suffering in Ireland on account of famine, and to 
push forward the Land League organization. 

More tlian ever embittered by the indifference and 
opposition of the House of Lords, who rejected, in 
1880, a bill for compensation to tenants evicted for non- 
payment of rent, the Land Leaguers made earnest 
speeches through Ireland, advising the tenants not to 
pay rent, and passively to resist eviction. A man who 
took a farm from which his neighbor had been evicted, 
was "boycotted." 

"When a man takes a farm from which another has 
been unjustly evicted," said Mr. Parnell, to an audience 
at Ennis, "j^ou must show him on the roadside when 
you-jneet him, you must show him in the streets of the 
town, you must show him in the shop, you must show 
him in the fair-green and in the market-place, and even 
in the place of worship, by leaving him alone, by put- 
ting him into a moral Coventry, by isolating him from 
the rest of his country, as if he were the leper of old, 
— you must show him your detestation of the crime he 
has committed." 

The outrages in Ireland increased. It was thought 
by the Government that the League was creating dis- 
turbance rather than preventing it, and several leaders, 
among them Mr. Parnell, were arrested, but afterwards 
released. 

Through the winter of 1880, the time of Parliament 
was almost completely absorbed by the Irish question. 



448 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 

Parnell and his followers had obstructed legislation. 
They no longer acted with the Liberals only, but with 
either party which seemed likely to give full and com- 
plete justice to Ireland. 

April 7, 1881j Gladstone introduced his second Land 
Bill in an eloquent address on what he rightly called 
"the most difficult and the most complex question" of 
his life. " It is said that we have failed in Ireland. I 
do not admit failure/' said Mr. Gladstone. " I admit 
success to be incomplete. I am asked how it is to be 
made complete. I say, by patient persistence in well- 
doing, by steady adherence to the work of justice. . . . 
It has been said that love is stronger than death, and so 
justice is stronger than popular excitement, than the 
passion of the moment, than even the grudges and re 
sentments and sad traditions of the past. Walking in 
that path, we cannot err. Guided by that light, that 
divine light, we are safe." 

The principal provisions of the Land Bill were the 
three F's : fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale> 
Any tenant may sell his holding to the best bidder j 
every present tenant may apply to a court to fix a judi- 
cial rent, which cannot be altered for fifteen years ; 
money may be advanced to tenants to enable them to 
purchase their holdings, or to emigrate. 

The Conservatives vigorously opposed the bill. Over 
a thousand amendments were offered. It Avent to the 
Lords, and was attacked with great vehemence by the 
Marquis of Salisbury and the Duke of Argyle. It was 
returned to the Commons, who would not accept the 
amendments. Again it was sent to the Lords, and 
again it was sent back with objectionable amendments. 
The country was becoming inflamed. Great meetings 



WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 449 

were held, urging the Liberals to stand fearless to the 
end. The Lords finally relented, and the Land Bill 
received the royal assent in August, 1881. 

In 1882 Mr. Gladstone had to deal with the Egyptian 
crisis. Mr. Bright resigned from the cabinet because 
opposed to a war, which to the majority of the ministry 
seemed a necessity for the continued control of Egypt, so 
largely the pecuniary debtor of England. Unfortunately, 
to restore order to Egypt meant to restore order also to 
the Soudan, which had been conquered by Egypt years 
before. In 1870 Sir Samuel Baker ruled the equatorial 
provinces for Egypt, as governor. In 1874 a man now 
known and lamented the world over. Colonel Charles 
George Gordon, was appointed to succeed him. He was 
of Scotch descent, well educated, and belonged to a race 
of soldiers. He had served in the Crimean War ; had 
helped the Chinese to overthrow the great Tai-Ping 
rebellion, for which he refused to receive rewards ; had 
returneji to England to labor as Commanding Eoyal 
Engineer on the Thames defences ; and had wrought 
wonders in his efforts against the slave trade in the 
Soudan. 

While at Gravesend in constructing the Thames de- 
fences, his house was a hospital, school, and almshouse, 
in turn. He established evening classes for the boys 
who worked on the river or the sea, and called them his 
" kings." He stuck pins into a map of the world hung 
over his mantel, which showed the course of the voyage 
of each lad for whom he had obtained a situation on 
shipboard. For each he prayed daily, moving the pins 
from place to place as the lads travelled. 

His large garden was open to the poor, to plant what 
they chose and take the products. He cared little for 



450 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 

Ms food, a dry crust and tea being his usual meal. He 
was, like Shaftesbury, the idol of the ragged schools, 
whose favorite benediction, chalked on the fences, was 
" God bless the Kernel." 

When offered ten thousand pounds a year by the 
Khedive, as the proper amount for so high a position as 
that of governor in the Soudan, he would accept but 
two thousand. He bought slaves from the dealers, and 
sent them home or provided for them. They were so 
grateful to work for him, or to be near him, that they 
would strive to touch his hand or the hem of his clothes. 

After his return to England, having been some time 
in India, it seemed best that he should be sent again to 
the Soudanese. They had rebelled against their task- 
masters, the Egyptians. Taxes were excessive, and 
collected by Bashi-Bazouks ; many in power were profli- 
gate, and ruled harshly ; famine was frequent. 

The Khedive looked eagerly to England for aid to 
subjugate his rebellious people. Meantime a deliverer 
had arisen in Soudan, Mahomet Achmet, the son of a 
carpenter, who proclaimed himself the Mahdi, the long- 
expected prophet. He had amassed wealth through his 
followers and by means of several rich wives. Those 
persons who could not be won to his cause by persua- 
sion were won by the sword. He fought battles and 
annihilated several Egyptian armies. 

Gladstone and the Liberals felt that they had been 
forced into tlie Egyptian war, as a matter begun by a 
previous ministry, and determined not to waste more 
blood and treasure in the East. 

Gladstone had said in the Nineteenth Century for 
August, 1877, in opposing " Aggression in Egypt : " ^^ It 
is the fewness of our men. Ample in numbers to de- 



WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 451 

fend our island-home, tliey are, with reference to the 
boundless calls of our world-wide dominion, but as a 
few grains of sand scattered thinly on a floor. 

"It will still remain an effort beyond and almost 
against nature, for some thirty or thirty-five millions of 
men to bear in chief the burden of defending the coun- 
tries inhabited by near three hundred millions. We 
must not flinch in the performance of our duty to those 
countries. But neither let us, by puerile expedients, try 
to hide from ourselves what it involves. To divest our- 
selves of territory once acquired is very difficult. . . . 
If then, we commit an error in adding to territory, it is 
an error impossible or difficult to cure." 

The Egyptian government had been urged by England 
to evacuate the Soudan, but this they were unwilling 
to do. The former sent General Hicks, an English 
officer on the Khedive's staff, with seven thousand men, 
against the Mahdi, who had three hundred thousand. 
General Hicks and his forces were cut to pieces as the 
other armies had been. 

Many Englishmen thought the prestige of their coun- 
try was being weakened through its indifference or fail- 
ure in Egypt. Some clamored for war. At last the 
press said, " Send General Gordon. He can make peace 
in the Soudan." 

Gordon did not favor the removal of 29,000 Egyptian 
soldiers from the Soudan, thus leaving the Mahdi to con- 
trol the vast country of 40,000,000 people. But he acqui- 
esced, and started on his mission, in the words of Mr. 
Gladstone, "for the double purpose of evacuating the 
country by the extinction of the Egyptian garrisons, and 
of reconstituting it by giving back to the Sultans their 
ancestral powers, as I may so call them, which had been 



452 IVILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

# 

withdrawn or suspended during the period of Egyptian 
occupation." 

Gordon left England, and practically alone, went into 
the desert country to bring order out of chaos. When he 
reached Khartoum, February 18, 1884, the people hailed 
him as the saviour of Kordofan. He at once burned the 
Egyptian books which recorded the burdensome taxes, 
and also the whips and other instruments of torture. 
He released prisoners, some of whom had been confined 
for fifteen years. He permitted the holding of slaves, as 
he did not feel willing to impoverish the masters unless 
he had the money to compensate them. 

He offered to make the Mahdi Sultan of Kordofan, but 
the offer was indignantly refused by the man who hoped 
to convert the whole country to his own belief. " I am 
the Mahdi. Will you become a Mussulman ? " was the 
message returned to Gordon. 

Baker Pasha had been sent by the Khedive to liberate 
the garrisons at Tokha. He had failed utterly, the Arabs 
spearing his men without mercy. After defeating his 
army they rushed upon the garrison at Tokha and mas- 
sacred the 600. 

England became alarmed over this and other defeats. 
Gordon was evidently in danger. He had had several 
skirmishes with the troops of the Mahdi. He had begun 
to fortify the town of Khartoum, 10,000 men who sym- 
pathized with the Mahdi being allowed to go outside the 
walls and join the enemy. At last, seeing that force 
alone could bring the Mahdi to terms. General Gordon 
urged England to send troops. 

The Government was divided. Gladstone had desired 
peace, saying that the Soudanese were " a people rightly 
struggling to be free," and wished Gordon to retire if 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 453 

the Egyptian garrisons could not be liberated. Gordon 
felt it to be liis duty to remain with those who had 
trusted him, and whom he had promised to assist. 

All summer the heroic man stood at his post of danger. 
The press and people of England grew to white heat in 
their excitement over Gordon. Einally in August, Glad- 
stone moved a vote of credit for £300,000, " to enable 
her Majesty to undertake operations for the relief of 
General Gordon, should it become necessary." Prep- 
arations were at once made. Eight hundred light boats 
were construced to stem the rapids on the Nile. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley was put in charge of the expedi- 
tion. He hastened to the Soudan. To reach Khartoum 
with his army was a toilsome journey. In December he 
encouraged his men by the words : "The physical objects 
which impede rapid progress are considerable ; but who 
cares for them when we remember General Gordon and 
his garrison are in danger ? Under God, their safety is 
now in your hands. Come what may, we must save 
them." 

Meantime hunger and treachery in Khartoum were 
doing their work. On November 4, the Mahdi had called 
upon Gordon to surrender. 

" Not for ten years," was the reply of the brave man. 

The troops of Sir Herbert Stewart were crossing the 
desert, and had defeated the Arabs at Abu Klea Wells, 
January 14, 1885, though with great loss of British 
officers. 

Gordon would soon be rescued. On January 24 the 
English troops were only thirty-six hours from Khar- 
toum. They pushed on, and when within 800 yards of 
the walls, they saw thousands of Arabs wildly waving 
flags, while a storm of shot was poured upon them. 



454 WILLIAM EWABT GLADSTONE. 

Khartoum, after a siege of seven months, had fallen, 
almost in the hour of her deliverance. Gordon had been 
killed on the threshold of the Government House, and 
men, women, and children had been massacred. 

" Children were spitted on the Arab spears in pure 
wantonness," and " for an entire day the streets of the 
city ran with blood." 

The gates of Khartoum had been opened by a traitor, 
who once had been under sentence of death for treason, 
but had been pardoned and reinstated in command by 
General Gordon. 

The Mahdi died of small-pox at Omderman, near Khar- 
toum, in June of the same year, 1885, and a handsome 
tomb marks the place of his burial. 

The British troops departed from the Soudan, and for 
a time, at least, the Egyptian question was left to settle 
itself. 

In 1884, December 6, Gladstone's Franchise Bill was 
passed, extending the franchise to 2,000,000 new voters, 
chiefly of the artisan class. The measure received the 
usual opposition from Conservatives. Mr. Chamberlain, 
the Liberal, declared the bill to be " the greatest consti- 
tutional reform since the Ke volution of 1688." 

The Liberal Government under Gladstone was suc- 
ceeded by the Conservative in 1885, but the Liberals 
came to power the following year, 1886. 

The Irish question seemed as far from settlement as 
ever. The Home Eule movement had been started in 
Ireland in 1870, sixteen years before. Its avowed object 
was " to obtain for Ireland the right of self-government 
by means of a National Parliament," " composed of Her 
Majesty the Sovereign, and her successors, and the Lords 
and Commons of Ireland ; to secure for that Parliament, 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 455 

under a federal arrangement, the rights of legislating 
for and regulating all matters relating to tlie internal 
affairs of Ireland, and control over Irish resources and 
revenues, subject to the obligation of contributing our 
just proportion of the Imperial expenditure." 

Members began to be elected from Ireland on the Home 
Rule platform. The stronger the party in Ireland, the 
sttonger grew the opposition in England, lest the sepa- 
ration of the Union should follow. The more the Irish 
argued and labored for self-government, the more they 
rebelled against the Coercion Acts of England, which 
each new Chief Secretary seemed to think a necessity to 
preserve order. But order was not thereby obtained. 

Mr. Gladstone, one of the truest friends Ireland has 
ever had, felt that peace could only come to that dis- 
tracted country through self-government. When it was 
announced that he would bring in a Home Kule Bill for 
Ireland, April 8, 1886, the excitement was intense. 

"^n that day some of the Irish members arrived at the 
House of Commons at half-past five in the morning, 
breakfasting, lunching, and dining there. When Mr. 
Gladstone entered, the House was crowded almost to 
suffocation. The whole Liberal party with four excep- 
tions, — Lord Hartington, Trevelyan, James, and Cham- 
berlain, — rose to greet the Great Commoner. The Irish 
members sprang to their feet and cheered him. 

For three hours and twenty-five minutes Gladstone 
held the closest attention of the crowded House. His 
voice was marvellous ; now low and soft, now strong and 
powerful. Mr. Gladstone said : — 

^' I ask you to sta}^ that waste of public treasure which 
is involved in the present system of government and 
legislation in Ireland ; and which is not a waste only, 



456 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 

but which demoralizes while it exhausts. I ask you to 
show to Europe and to America that we too can face 
political problems which America twenty years ago faced, 
and which many countries in Europe have been called 
upon to face, and have not feared to deal with. 

" I ask that we should apply to Ireland that happy 
experience which we have gained in England and in 
Scotland, where the course of generations has now taught 
us, not as a dream or a theory, but as practice and as 
life, that the best and surest foundation we can find to 
build upon is the foundation afforded by the affections, 
the convictions, and the will of the nation; and it is 
thus by the decree of the Almighty that we may be 
enabled to secure at once the social peace, the fame, the 
power, and the permanence of this Empire." 

The Home Eule Bill provided for an Irish Legisla- 
ture to sit in Dublin, with the Queen as its head, to con- 
sist of 309 members ; the Lord-Lieutenant, appointed by 
the Crown, to assent to or veto any bill ; the making of 
peace or war, all foreign and colonial questions, army, 
navy, and some other matters, to remain in the hands of 
the Imperial Parliament ; Irish members not to sit at 
"Westminster except when summoned back for special 
purposes ; Ireland to pay one-fifteenth as her portion of 
interest of national debt, army, etc. 

Mr. Gladstone's Home Eule Bill was bitterly opposed. 
Chamberlain and some others left the Cabinet. Mr. 
Parnell, speaking for his countrymen, said, "I am con- 
vinced that if our views are fairly met, ... it will be 
cheerfully accepted by the Irish people, as a solution of 
the long-standing dispute between the two countries, 
and that it will lead to the prosperity and peace of 
Ireland and the satisfaction of England." 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 457 

Eight days later, April 16, Mv. Gladstone introduced 
another great measure, his Land Purchase Bill, by which 
Irish landlords have the option of selling, the price to 
be fixed by a land commission. The State may buy this 
land and hold for or sell to tenants, and the British 
treasury may advance £50,000,000 for that purpose. 

"The money advanced by the British treasury is to 
be raised by the issue to the landlords of three per cent 
stock at par. This stock is to be redeemed by the repay- 
ment of a terminable annuity for forty-nine years by 
the State authority." 

Both the Home Eule and Land Purchase Bills were 
voted down, and Gladstone appealed to the country. 
The Conservatives gained a majority, and Salisbury again 
became Prime Minister in 1886, Gladstone having been 
in power only about four months. 

As might have been predicted, matters in Ireland 
grew worse than before. A " plan of campaign " was 
adopted, by which tenants agreed to combine to resist 
rent if there were not suitable reduction. Absentee land- 
lords refused to comply. Tenants were evicted ; agents 
were shot ; dynamite explosions took place ; crimes in- 
creased ; men were arrested, and lost health and some- 
times life in prison. At last, under the Tory govern- 
ment, Mr. Balfour's Land Purchase Bill was introduced 
March 24, 1890. The bill authorized an advance by the 
State of about £33,000,000 to assist tenants in pur- 
chasing from the landlords. The Land Department, after 
fixing the purchase price, could at once make an order 
constituting the tenant owner of his holding. The 
tenant should pay an annuity of four per cent upon 
the amount advanced, for a period of forty-nine years. 
The Government proposed to secure itself by a guaranty 



458 WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE. 

fund, consisting of a casli portion and a contingent por- 
tion. The bill was opposed by Mr. Gladstone for four 
reasons, the first being that the bill was entirely unsatis- 
factory to the Irish people themselves. Mr. Parnell 
proposed that in the case of holdings of fifty pounds 
valuation, the landlord should reduce the rent of his 
judicial tenants by thirty per cent, and receive an ad- 
vance which was to be spent in paying off the most 
onerous of his incumbrances. At this time. May, 1891, 
the House of Commons is eagerly discussing the Land 
Purchase Bill, and Ireland is awaiting the result. 

Mr. Gladstone has persevered in his work for Ireland. 
He has passed the age of eighty-one, — his golden wed- 
ding and eightieth birthday were celebrated in 1889, 
with gifts from rich and poor in both continents, — still 
vigorous, still writing for magazines and publishing 
his "Impregnable Eock of Holy Scripture," and other 
books, still making his wonderful speeches over the 
country, still honored and beloved as the central figure 
in English statesmanship. 

Por the present. Home Rule has been delayed by the 
divorce case with which Mr. Parnell has been connected. 
When the Liberals again come to power, Mr. Gladstone 
will, it is hoped, be able to carry forward the great 
reforms to which he has devoted so many years. 

Mr. Gladstone's life, with all its care, seems to have 
been a most happy one. Of his wife, who has been his 
constant companion in his speech-making tours, he said 
at a reception given him by the National Liberal Club : 
" No words that I could use would ever suffice to express 
the debt that I owe her in relation to all the offices that 
she has discharged on my behalf, and on behalf of those 
that are nearest and dearest to us, during the long and 
happy period of our conjugal union." 



WILLIAM EWAllT GLADSTONE. 459 

Eiglit cliildren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Glad- 
stone, four sons and four daughters. Seven are now 
living. The eldest, William Henry, and the fourth, 
Herbert John, have been members of Parliament ; the 
second son, the Rev. Stephen Edward, is rector of Hawar- 
den; the third, Henry Neville, is engaged in mercantile 
pursuits. The daughters are Anne, Helen, and Mary ; 
two are married to clergymen. 

Mr. Gladstone has been offered titles and distinguished 
honors by the Queen, but he has preferred to remain 
" one of the people." In 1874, for pecuniary reasons, he 
felt obliged to give up his handsome home, Carlton 
House Terrace, London, where he had lived for eighteen 
years, and take a smaller one. He also parted with his 
valuable collection of china, and many of his pictures. 

Mr. Pelham-Clinton, in Once a Week, says of Mr. 
Gladstone's London residence, in 1889 : " It is in James 
Street, a curious little street that leads from Bucking- 
ham Palace Eoadto Victoria Street. The first portion of 
the street coming from lUickingham Palace has some 
delightful residences on the one side, while on the 
other high iron railings divide it from the parade ground 
of the Wellington Barracks, as only one side of the 
street is built up. The view is always a pleasant and 
animated one, though the neighborhood of the barracks 
must add greatly to the noise, the perpetual bugle calls 
and shouts of command being rather detrimental to per- 
fect repose. 

"The house itself is built of plain yellow brick, with 
gray stone points. The portico is sustained by four 
stucco pillars, and there is the usual railing around the 
area. The windows are all filled with boxes containing 
gayly colored flowering plants, which give the outside 



460 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 

a bright, cheerful look, added to by the white curtains 
and colored ribbons holding them back, and which can 
just be seen. ... 

" The hall is square, and furnished in hard wood, and 
brightened by red rugs. On one side is the dining- 
room, and at the head of the stairs is the drawing-room. 
Turning to the right, however, a few steps before the 
drawing-room level is reached, a small passage brought 
me to the door of the study, which was standing open. 
Through it I could see across the room, and on a lounge 
at the other side, half lying down, was Mr. Gladstone, 
reading very intently. It seemed at first almost as if 
he was so intent on his volume that he could not bring 
his mind back to animate objects, as he did not catch 
my name, but when he did, his greeting was kindness 
itself." 

Mr. Gladstone has always been an indefatigable 
worker. He rises early, and retires late. He is a most 
careful user of time. No one who has ever seen him can 
forget his erect form, with its quick, strong step, his 
wonderful power of speech, and his thoughtful, noble 
face. 

Mr. Gladstone stands to-day a unique figure in the 
world's progress ; a man of unsullied reputation, of 
lofty impulses, a master in eloquence, an earnest de- 
fender of Christianity ; one of the few great leaders 
of the nineteenth century. 



NEW BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



A SCORE OF FAMOUS COMPOSERS. By Nathan 

Haskell Dole, formerly musical editor of the Philadelphia Press and Evening^ 
Bulletin. With portraits of Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Haydn, etc. i2mo, ;j^i.5o. 
No pains have been spared to make this volume of musical biographies accurate, and at 
the same time entertaining. Many quaint and curious details have been found in out-of- 
the-way German or Italian sources. Beginning with Palestrina, "the Prince of Music," 
concerning whose life many interesting discoveries have been recently made, and ending 
with Wagner, the twenty Composers, while in the majority of German origin, still embrnce 
representatives of England and Italy, Hungary and Russia, of France and Poland. 
Free from pedantry and technicalities, simple and straightforward in style, these sketches 
aim above all to acquaint the reader, and particularly the young, with the personality of 
the subjects, to make them live again while recounting their struggles and triumphs. 

FAMOUS ENGLISH STATESMEN. By Sarah K. Bol- 

TON, author of " Poor Boys Who became Famous." With Portraits of Gladstone, 

John Bright, Robert Peel, etc. i2mo, $1.50. 
Mrs. Bolton has found a peculiarly congenial subject in her latest contribution to the 
series of " Famous" books. Nearly all of the English statesmen whose biographies she 
so sympathetically recounts, have been leaders in great works of reform ; and with many 
Mrs. Bolton had the privilege of personal acquaintance. She has given succinct, yet suffi- 
ciently detailed descriptions of the chief labors of these statesmen, and the young reader 
will find them stirring and stimulating, full of anecdotes and bright sayings. 

THE JO-BOAT BOYS. By Rev. J. F. Cowan, D.D., editor of 

" Our Young People," etc. Illustrated by H. W. Peirce. i2mo, ^1.50. 
The shanty boats which shelter the amphibious people along the banks of the Ohio are 
called Jo-Boats, and Dr. Cowan has chosen this original environment for the earlier 
scenes of his remarkably lively and spirited story. It will appeal to every boy who has a 
spark of zest in his soul. 

AN ENTIRE STRANGER. By Rev. T. L. Baily. Illustrated. 

i2mo, $1.25. 
The heroine of Mr. Baily's naive and fascinating story is a school-teacher who is full 
of resoui"Ces, and understands how to bring out the diverse capabilities of her scholars. 
She wins the love and admiration of her school, and interests them in many improve- 
ments. It is a thoroughly practical book, and we should be glad to see it in the hands of 
all teachers and their scholars. 

THROWN UPON HER OWN RESOURCES; OR, 

WHAT GIRLS CAN DO. By "Jenny June" (Mrs. 

Crolj). A book for girls. i2mo, $1.25. 

Mrs. Croly, the able editor of The Home Maker, in this book for girls, shows in her 
practical, common-sense way, what chances there are open to young women, when the 
necessity comes for self-support. The wise, prudent words of one who has had so much 
experience in dealing with the problems of life will be welcomed by a large class of 
readers. 

LED IN UNKNOWN PATHS. By Anna F. Raffensperger. 

Illustrated. i2mo, $1.25. 
A simple, unpretentious diary of homely, every-day life. It is so true to nature that it 
reads like a transcript from an actual journal. It Is full of good-humor, quiet fun, gentle 
pathos, and good sound sense. One follows with surprising interest the daily doings, the 
pleasures and trials of the good family whose life is pictured in its pages. 

HALF A DOZEN GIRLS. By Anna Chapin Ray, author of 

" Half a Dozen Boys." Illustrated. i2mo, $1.25. 
A book for girls displaying unusual insight into human nature with a quiet, sly humor, 
a faculty of investing every-day events with a dramatic interest, a photographic touch, 
and a fine moral tone. It ought to be a favorite with many girls. 

THOMAS Y. OROWELL & CO., Publishers, New York. 



PUBLICATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



1 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS 

By Thomas Hughes. With 53 illustrations engraved by Andrew, carefully 

printed from beautiful type on calendered paper. i2mo, cloth, $2.00; full gilt, 

$2.50. Edition de hixe, limited to 250 numbered copies, large paper, Japan 

proofs mounted, $5.00. 

Praise or comment on this classic would be a work of supererogation. Every 

parent sooner or later puts it in his children's hands. We can only say that the 

present edition is by all odds the best that has ever been oftered to the American 

public. Printed from large type, well illustrated, and handsomely bound, it makes 

a book worthy of any library, 

2 FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS. 

By Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton, author of " Poor Boys Who Became Famous," 

etc. With portraits of Raphael, Titian, Landseer, Reynolds, Rubens, Turner, 

and others. l2mo, $1.50. 

In this handsome volume, Mrs. Bolton relates sympathetically, and with her usual 

skill in seizing upon salient points, the lives of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Turner, and 

other artists, whose names are household words. The sketches are accompanied by 

excellent portraits. 

3 FAMOUS ENGLISH AUTHORS OF THE 19th 

CENTURY. 

By Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton, author of " Poor Boys W^ho Became Famous," 

etc. With portraits of Scott, Burns, Carlyle,. Dickens, Tennyson, Robert 

Browning, etc. i2mo, $1.50. 

During a recent visit abroad, Mrs. Bolton had the opportunity of visiting many of 

the scenes made memorable by the residence or writings of the best known English 

authors, and the incidents which she was thus enabled to invest with a personal 

interest, she has woven into the sketches of Tennyson, Ruskin, Browning, and the 

other authors of whom she writes. These two companion volumes are among the 

best of the famous *' Famous " Series. 

4 GOSPEL STORIES. 

Translated from the Russian of Count L. N. Tolstoi by Nathan Haskell 
Dole. i2mo, $1.25. 
Count Tolstoi's short sketches of Russian life, inspired generally by some pregnant 
text of Scripture and written for the masses, perhaps even more than his longer 
works show the man's real greatness. Sixteen of these, selected from various publi- 
cations, are here presented in a neat and attractive volume. 

5 PHILIP, or What May Have Been 

A story of the First Century. By Mary C. Cutler. i2mo, $1.25. 
An appreciative notice of this story contains the following words : — " Reverence, 
accuracy, a chastened feeling of perfect sincerity, pervade this book. . . . We have 
read it through, and can confidently recommend it as in every way fitted to give the 
old familiar facts of the gospel history a new interest." 

6 HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 

By Annie Chapin Ray. i2mo, illustrated, $1.25. 
This is a genuine story of boy life. The six heroes are capital fellows, such as 
any healthy lad, or girl either for that matter, will feel heart warm toward. The 
simple incidents and amusements of the village where they live are invested with 
a peculiar charm through the hearty and sympathetic style in which the book is 
written. It is a book quite worthy of Miss Alcott's pen. 



For sale by all booksellers. 



THOMAS Y. OEOWELL & CO., Publishers, New York. 



PUBLICATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



1 JED. A Boy's Adventures in the Army of '61-'65. 

A story of battle and prison, of peril and escape. By Warren Lee Goss, author o{ 
" The Soldier's Story of his Captivity at Andersonville and other Prisons," " The Recol- 
lections of a Private " (in the Century War Series). Fully illustrated. i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
In this story the author has aimed to furnish true pictures of scenes ni the great CiviJ 
War, and not to produce sensational effects. The incidents of the book are real ones, 
drawn in part from the writer's personal experiences and observations as a soldier of the 
Union, during that war. The descriptions of the prison are especially truthful, for in 
them the author briefly tells what he himself saw. One of the best war stories ever 
written. Boys will read it with avidity. 

2 THE WALKS ABROAD OF TWO YOUNG 

NATURALISTS. 

From the French of Charles Beaugrand. By David Sharp, M.B., F.L.S., F.Z.S., 
President of the Entomological Society of London. Fully illustrated. 8vo. ;f2.oo. 

A fascinating narrative of travel and adventure, in which is introduced much valuable 
information on natural history subjects, and a reading of the book will tend to foster an 
interest in zoology. 

3 FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE. 

By Sarah K. Bolton, author of "Poor Boys who became Famous," etc. Short 
biographical sketches of Galileo, Newton, Linnseus, Cuvier, Humboldt, Audubon, Agassiz, 
Darwin, Buckland, and others. Illustraced with 15 portraits. i2mo. ^1.50. 

4 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Pictures of the 

Reign of Terror. 

By Lydia Hoyt Farmer, author of " Boys' Book of Famous Rulers," etc. With 
35 illustrations. i2mo. $150. 

To those who have not the leisure to make an exhaustive study of this remarkable epoch 
in the world's history, this volume offers a rapid and clear resume of its most important 
events and thrilling scenes. 

5^ROLF AND HIS FRIENDS. 

By J A K, author of " Birchwood," " Fitch Club," etc. Illustrated. i2mo. $1.25. 

A healthful, stimulating story, showing the advantage that every boy must necessarily 
gain from association with intelligent, progressive young people, no matter what their 
color or condition in life may be. The incidents are fresh and natural, the conversations, 
bright and piquant, and the interest well sustained, while incidentally there is a valuable 
ieaven of information. 

6 CECIL'S KNIGHT. 

Cousins," etc. A s 
boy, who, through \ 
overtv to success. I 

to put into a boy's hand. — 



By E. B. HoLLis, author of " Cecil's Cousins," etc. A story of no impossible knight, 
bat of a very real, natural, and manly boy, who, through perseverance, good sense, and 
genuine courage, fought his way from poverty to success. Illustrated. i2mo. _ $1.25. 

" We recommend ' Cecil's Knight ' as an excellent book 



Beacon. 

7 RED CARL. 

By J. J. Me^smer. a story dealing with the labor question, socialism, and temperance, 
and one of the best, all points considered, that treats of these subjects popularly. Illus- 
trated. i2mo. $1.25. 

" It would be difficult to find a healthier, more stimulating, and more suggestive story 
to put into the hands of the young." 



For sale by all booksellers. 

THOMAS Y. OEOWELL & CO., Publishers, New Yorkv 



FAMOUS BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE. 

By Sarah K. Bolton. Shortbiographical sketches of Galileo, Newton, Linnaeus, 
Cuvier, Humboldt, Audubon, Agassiz, Darwin, Buckland, and others. Illustrated 
with 15 portraits. i2mo. $1.50. 

POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS. 

By Sarah K. Bolton. Short biographical sketches of George Peabody, Michael 
Faraday, Samuel Johnson, Admiral Farragut, Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, Garibaldi, President Lincoln, and other noted persons who, from humble 
circumstances, have risen to fame and distinction, and left behind an imperishable 
record. Illustrated with 24 portraits. i2mo. $1.50. 

GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS. 

By Sarah K. Bolton. A companion book to " Poor Boys Who Became 
Famous." Biographical sketches of Harriet Beecher 3towe, George Eliot, Helen 
Hunt Jackson, Harriet Hosmer, Rosa Bonheur, Florence Nightingale, Maria 
Mitchell, and other eminent women. Illustrated with portraits. i2mo. $1,50. 

FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS. 

By Sarah K. Bolton. Short biographical sketches of Holmes, Longfellow, 
Emerson, Lowell, Aldrich, Mark Twain, and other noted writers. Illustrated with 
portraits. i2mo. $1.50. 

FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN. 

By Sarah K. Bolton. A companion book to "Famous American Authors." 
Biographical sketches of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Webster, 
Sumner, Garfield, and others. Illustrated with portraits. i2mo. $1.50. 

BOYS' BOOK OF FAMOUS RULERS. 

By Lydia Hoyt Farmer. Lives of Agamemnon, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, 
Frederick the Great, Richard Coeur de Lion, Robert Bruce, Napoleon, and other 
heroes of historic fame. Fiilly illustrated with portraits and numerous engravings. 
i2mo. $1.50. 

GIRLS' BOOK OF FAMOUS QUEENS. 

By Lydia Hoyt Farmer. A companion book to " Boys' Book of Famous 
Rulers." Lives of Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth, Catherine de Medici, Josephine, 
Victoria, Eugenie, etc. i2mo, cloth. 85 illustrations. $1.50. 

LIFE OF LA FAYETTE, the Knight of Liberty. 

By Lydia Hoyt Farmer. A glowing narrative of the life of this renowned 
general, with 5S illustrations. i2mo. $1.50. 

As a large portion of the material presented in this volume has been gathered from 
French works never before translated and which are now out of print, and also from 
original files of newspapers, and various manuscripts written by members of the 
La Fayette family, a more complete life of General La Fayette is here offered than 
has before appeared, either in this country or in Europe. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Pictures of the 
Reign of Terror. 

By Lydia Hoyt Farmer. With 35 illustrations. lamo. $1.50. 

To those who have not the leisure to make an exhaiistive study of this remarkable 
epoch in the world's history, tins volume offers a rapid and clear resume of its most 
important events and thrilling scenes. 



THOMAS T. OEOWELL & CO., NEW YOEK. 



